wild-horses

First Thing Tuesday

This BLOG is intended to help conservation organizations and land trusts pursue excellence in all aspects of their conservation endeavors. I welcome your comments and feedback to these posts.

  1 August 2023   By David Allen, Development for Conservation   Have you ever tried to fold a square of paper into an origami crane? If so, you can appreciate a study published in 2011 by Michael Norton of Harvard Business School. In the study, subjects were asked to fold...

  25 July 2023   By David Allen, Development for Conservation   If I had to pick just one issue holding organizations back from raising more money, it would be this: Board members and senior staff don’t know the donors and donors don’t know the organizational leadership. Donors will feel more...

  18 July 2023   By David Allen, Development for Conservation   WARNING: The contents of this post have a high geek factor and may be harmful to your sense of world order.   For all the harping I do about treating all the numbers in your communications as suspect (See All...

  27 June 2023   By David Allen, Development for Conservation   If you have remembered _____ Land Trust in your will, please let us know so that we can say Thank You during your lifetime. This is so easy. It makes a good PS: note. It makes a good line...

  20 June 2023   By David Allen, Development for Conservation   Just because something is new doesn’t mean it’s better. Just because something is old doesn’t mean it’s worthless. And just because we CAN do something doesn’t mean we should.   I juggle about 25 clients in a year, including coaching clients. I...

  13 June 2023   By David Allen, Development for Conservation   July is just a few short weeks away – Yikes! – Are you ready? What’s on your list for July? Annual Meetings? Summer field trips? Donor visits? Here’s what I’m thinking about.   Plan the Fall Appeal – If you follow...

  6 June 2023   By David Allen, Development for Conservation   I’m still reviewing far too many fundraising letters that fail the most basic test of asking for money. They dance around the idea by asking someone to “be generous” or “give a little bit more” or “renew again...