What are you doing to show appreciation for your donors? I have helped many organizations create donor clubs and appreciation events. Here are some lessons I’ve learned along the way...
Many land trusts use Board members or other volunteers to write personal messages on select fall appeal letters. The note conveys that we all know this is a form letter, but at least one person is paying special attention to how you, in particular, respond....
From now until Christmas, everything you do with members and donors should be coordinated. And everything they see should appear coordinated as well....
Getting the most out of your fall fundraising events - you want to capture as much information from the evening as possible. And to set it all up, you need to get organized now...
This year write your fundraising letters to your most important donors longhand. Actually make this a board activity with each board member writing 3-5 letters....
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....
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...
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...
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....
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...