Development for Conservation |

16 Jun Good News

Posted at 05:54h in Communication, Donor Cultivation, Featured, Membership, Staff Development, Uncategorized 0 Comments

June is a good time to share Good News as a specific strategy for advancing donor cultivation. Find something that has recently happened and that hasn’t yet been publicized otherwise. Something that you can share with your donors that they won’t have already heard elsewhere....

10 Jun Annual Report DOs and DON’Ts

Posted at 20:15h in Communication, Donor Cultivation, Featured, Membership, Staff Development, Uncategorized 0 Comments

The most important value for an Annual Report is as a sales piece. Keep that in mind and make sure it tells your story in the way you want it told. Here are some DOs and DON’Ts for Annual Reports....

03 Jun Plan the Board HandWriting Event for August

Posted at 05:46h in Board Development, Communication, Donor Cultivation, Featured, Membership, Plans and Budgets, Staff Development, Uncategorized 0 Comments

Donor clubs are a perfect group to solicit using a letter that is entirely written longhand. If you want to mail these letters in late September or early October – which would be ideal – you need to have the letters written in August. And...

27 May Spring Appeal 2nd Drop

Posted at 04:29h in Communication, Donor Cultivation, Featured, Membership, Staff Development, Uncategorized 0 Comments

Now that Memorial Day is behind us, there’s still time this week to mail a reminder letter for the Spring Appeal. But hurry, before school lets out and vacation season starts in earnest. There are several competing theories about second appeal letters. The first suggests...

19 May Taking Stock

Posted at 05:37h in Board Development, Communication, Development Audit, Donor Cultivation, Featured, Membership, Plans and Budgets, Staff Development, Uncategorized 0 Comments

There’s a problem with measuring your year in twelfths. It works for expenses like rent, which is the same each month. But it doesn’t work for insurance which sits at 0% of budget until the month it’s due and then zooms all the way to...

12 May Donor Event Planning

Posted at 05:32h in Board Development, Communication, Donor Cultivation, Featured, Membership, Staff Development, Uncategorized 0 Comments

Donor events can take many forms, from field trips to coffees or luncheons, house parties, open houses at the office, and so on. In general, I separate them functionally as follows: Introductory Event, Cultivation Events, and Appreciation Events....

05 May Direct Mail Lists

Posted at 05:51h in Communication, Donor Cultivation, Featured, Membership, Staff Development, Uncategorized 0 Comments

May is a month when you turn the corner from the campaigns of the spring to outdoor activities in the summer and plans for the fall. Build in some time for reflection for sure, but realize that it’s not too early to begin planning for...

28 Apr Spring Appeal

Posted at 09:39h in Communication, Donor Cultivation, Featured, Membership, Staff Development, Uncategorized 0 Comments

This is the week you should send out your Spring Appeal. I’ve been asked by several clients about timing of the appeal. You can send out an appeal letter until the Tuesday before Memorial Day (the 19th) and still do relatively well. Every day you...

21 Apr Donor Screening

Posted at 05:40h in Board Development, Donor Cultivation, Featured, Membership, Staff Development, Uncategorized 0 Comments

We’re looking for rich people who already know us and understand why what we’re doing is important. And on whatever economic scale our current supporters represent, we’re looking for the top 10 percent (or so)....

14 Apr Renewing Lapsed Members

Posted at 15:37h in Board Development, Communication, Donor Cultivation, Featured, Membership, Staff Development, Uncategorized 0 Comments

If you organize your work around weekly systems, you end up with months like this one – April – with five Wednesdays instead of just four. (We also have five-Wednesday months in July, September, and December this year.) I suggest you have a plan for...

David Allen Tag