The most important branding element for your donor club is the list itself. Like a social register, people like to find their own name and look for those of their friends. Make sure you spell everyone’s name correctly! ...
You can raise more money from your members just by systematically asking for more money. Donor clubs can help, and a significant side benefit is that the annual solicitations provide a useful way for board members to get more involved in fundraising....
The expectation is that a Development Director is meeting with two donors, on average, every week. So what constitutes a “contact”? Contacts count when they are in-person or on the telephone, written-up with a clearly defined follow-up course of action, and filed in the donor...
In a little bit, I will argue for the latter, but first I want to make the case that most land trusts need a Development Coordinator before they need a Development Director. Let’s look carefully at what a Development Director does. A skilled Development Director...
I thoroughly enjoyed your seminar at the recent Rally and wanted to share with you an "AHA" moment that I have had since returning from Milwaukee. ...
Nonetheless, anonymity rarely serves the organization, and that is increasingly true as the value of the gift grows. Anonymity, in the case study above, robbed the organization of the donor confidence that comes when 75% of the money for a particular project has been raised....
A couple of things jump out of Read’s article for me. The question of how to recruit advocates instead of “merely donors” is interesting and speaks to the need for fundraising to be seen as relationship-building. ...
Early last year, six foundations with a history of funding Executive Director Sabbaticals released a study documenting their effectiveness, entitled Creative Disruption: Sabbaticals for Capacity Building and Leadership Development In the Nonprofit Sector. According to the study: Organizational capacity increased as the second tier of leadership took...
I just got back from Columbus, Ohio, the site of this year’s Land Trust Alliance’s Midwest Land Conservation Conference. Meeting and working with practitioners and Board members from the twelve states represented there inspired me to pick this blog up again. As a relative newcomer...