Thank you for working in your community to protect places that people love and will love for generations to come. Thank you for connecting people who want to help to projects that need them. Thank you for teaching new generations of conservationists who will care...
I’ll share first that virtually every direct mail letter expert will tell you that asking for a specific amount of money will increase not only your response rate, but your total return as well. (If you’re not buying this, test it.) The language I have...
At Rally this year, I finally got to present the Development Committee Makeover workshop. The point of the workshop was to show, using before and after scripts, how Development Committees could address their work in a much more productive way by limiting their discussion to...
For this reason, the “conversion rate” from first givers to first renewals is one of the more important metrics you will want to pay attention to. It might even be the most significant metric related to membership growth. Several weeks ago, I offered strategies for...
From your solicitations to your newsletters, to your updates and thank you letters, the importance of communicating warmth, openness, and a sense of momentum is magnified in December. People want to know that their gifts made a difference and were noticed by you....
Back in August I started a series of posts about planning for development entitled“ Development Planning from Scratch.” With this morning’s post, I’ve come to the end of the thread. It assumes that you have started with a clear fundraising goal needed by the program,...
Every year, about 1/4 of your members are brand new and nearly 1/2 are in their first 3 years of membership. If you want your membership to grow, you need to attract more new members than you're losing every year....
If I was planning a membership program from scratch, I would start with a membership drive in the Spring months and an end-of-the-year appeal letter in the Fall. Everyone would get at least two letters – one asking them to renew their membership and one...
Are you ready for November? Are you getting the most out of the magic three months when 50-70% of all your gifts for the year will be committed? Here’s what I’m thinking about. What are YOU thinking about?...
Dr. Stan Temple was a board member with whom I worked closely at both The Nature Conservancy and Sand County Foundation. He shared with me that once upon a time, his doctoral students did all their research work in the Library. Today, virtually no one...