Replace your ability to narrate in the third person with an ability to testify in the first person. So with that in mind, I suggest that you join the organization you support....
I have yet to meet a land trust that felt it had enough members. On the one hand, it’s both difficult to argue with and hardly surprising. On the other hand, recruiting new members can become an obsession that results in serious neglect of the...
The Town of Bolton, Connecticut has 1,998 residential addresses. The Bolton Land Trust has just fewer than 300 members. That’s a 15% penetration rate, or about 1 member for every 7 addresses. How do they do it? …..mailing to every household in Bolton several times...
In fundraising for land conservation, we often say that “the land sells itself.” By this we simply mean that if you can get a potential donor out on the land to see, smell, touch – feel – for themselves, often that’s all you need. This...
That scenario presumes, of course, that you do not have a mailhouse doing all the work for you. If you do have a mailhouse that you work with, what you can do now is get the merge files ready to go. But you should also...
Back in May, I talked about periodically using some reflective time to “take stock” of where you are right now versus where you thought you’d be at this time (See Taking Stock). Presumably, if you acted on the advice, you a) redoubled your effort to...
Foundation grants should be written by the person closest to the project - the project manager or land steward. Board members have a role to play here as well, because (hopefully!) they are well connected in the community and know key decision-makers. Now – in...
For many organizations, as much as seventy percent of operations funding is raised in the fall, and a healthy percentage of that comes from the fall appeal campaign. Planning NOW will help you get the most from your campaign and will help you from going...
After sending out three or four letters asking the donor to renew, I recommend simply dropping the issue for a full year. In other words, I treat them exactly as if they had renewed their membership for a full year. And a year later, I...
If you’re like me, keeping your paper files organized and up-to-date is a task that frequently falls off the table. So here we are in June – now is a great time for catching up with data entry, too....