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.
18 March 2025 By David Allen, Development for Conservation Dear Board Director: Does your organization have a Conflict-of-Interest Policy? Do you – specifically you – know what it says and how and when to use it? Is it signed by every Board Director every year? Have you seen evidence that...
11 March 2025 By David Allen, Development for Conservation I have come to believe that $100 is pocket change, more or less. It’s a very common withdrawal amount from an ATM for those of us still using cash at all. $250 is not pocket change. It’s a threshold...
4 March 2025 By David Allen, Development for Conservation Before I start in on this week’s topic, I want to ask for your help in gathering data for a future blog post. I’ve heard back from 12 groups now, and I’d like to get to at least...
25 February 2025 By David Allen, Development for Conservation Before I start in on this week’s topic, I want to ask for your help in gathering data for a future blog post. If you are willing to participate, here’s what I will need from you: Isolate the...
18 February 2025 By David Allen, Development for Conservation Beginning in about 2017, I started collecting data from readers of this blog about the five-year value of new members and donors making first gifts to their land trusts. My theory was that because recruiting new donors in...
11 February 2025 By David Allen, Development for Conservation I spent the better part of last weekend cutting up wood in my backyard. My wonderful white pines had shed several not-so-small limbs, four other trees needed pruning, and I had determined to take two of our lilac...
4 February 2025 By David Allen, Development for Conservation The funny thing about nonprofit work is that we are regularly called to accomplish 120-150% of what might be humanly possible in a day or a week – and we like it that way. Think about it. If the workload...
28 January 2025 By David Allen, Development for Conservation In May, Carolyn and Marty attended a Conservancy-hosted family-fun day on the Green Preserve with their daughter and her two children. They were responding to a Facebook ad and thought the outing was just the thing to help...
21 January 2025 By David Allen, Development for Conservation One of the questions I often get about meeting donors relates to not being able to imagine why they would agree to meet in the first place and what to say if they did. The fear is that...
14 January 2025 By David Allen, Development for Conservation I don’t necessarily subscribe to the notion of “language police,” and nothing in this post is intended to be critical of the language YOU use to talk about your projects and programs. Still, words matter and the words...