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.
2 April 2024 By David Allen, Development for Conservation In a perfect world we would know – really know – every single donor who gives money. We would know how they found the land trust in the first place. We would know how old they are and...
26 March 2024 By David Allen, Development for Conservation How did you come to be on the Board? Well, I’ve known _______ for years, and when she asked me to be on the Board, it sounded like fun. Think back on that conversation. Did she ask you to fill...
19 March 2024 By David Allen, Development for Conservation I read a lot of land trust appeal mail. You should, too. I recommend it. Some of it is really good. A lot of it is not. But what I notice more often than not is that the letters...
12 March 2024 By David Allen, Development for Conservation My formative years in conservation were all with The Nature Conservancy. I learned how to raise money, and why raising money for land conservation was important, from some of the best practitioners available. That imprinting came in many...
5 March 2024 By David Allen, Development for Conservation One of the more common entry points for me when working with new organizations is a Development Audit (or Assessment). The audit looks critically at everything an organization is doing to raise money. One of the standard features of...
27 February 2024 By David Allen, Development for Conservation I once worked with an organization that had more board committees than board members. Just related to fundraising and communications, the organization had a Development Committee, a Corporate Relations Committee, a Fundraising Committee, a Membership Committee, a Newsletter...
20 February 2024 By David Allen, Development for Conservation Last week and this, I am drawing a distinction between the form and content of two types of fundraising letters: renewals and appeals. Last week’s post focused on writing letters to people who gave you money last year...
13 February 2024 By David Allen, Development for Conservation Those of you who have followed me or followed this blog over the years will recognize that I am a disciple of the “longer letters raise more money” cult. I’m planning to go off on the topic again...
6 February 2024 By David Allen, Development for Conservation Some ten years ago or so, the keynote speaker for Rally was Andy Goodman and his topic was story-telling. His basic message was that we all need to be in the group of people who communicate all the...
30 January 2024 By David Allen, Development for Conservation One day, back in my TNC days, a donor walked in and told us that he was taking his company public and that he wanted to make a million-dollar gift. He was not unknown to us. He had...