For the most part, nonprofit organizations have been hit hard by our nation’s economic woes. They’re facing challenges in terms of donations, staffing, government and foundation funding, and organizational structure. How can you quickly make a difference while at the same time setting those important standards for your organization’s future sustainability?...
Think of your dearest friends. The people who are closer to you than family. Did that bond endure despite silence, inattentiveness and a lack of interest in their lives? Of course it didn’t! You invested countless time and energy in those relationships. It is difficult to comprehend that fundraising and "friendraising" as practices often exist…
In a perfect world, a gift is an expression of a deeper relationship. It is a tangible way of telling the other person you value them, you care about them, you love them and that they really do matter in the larger scheme of things. But in many relationships, gifts have become an obligatory transaction devoid of any real meaning. And that is why I worry about it...
What will you do differently this year-end to build a relationship with your donors so you are still “best buds” come December of next year? I think it starts with looking at businesses and organizations with which we have a relationship and feel some loyalty to. What are they doing right that we can emulate?...
Peter’s Achilles is he cares for his supporters and would-be donors too much. You read it right. He just wants everyone to take his message to heart. He wants everyone to be on board. That’s simply not possible. It never will be, no matter how important, how urgent, how worthy. It just won’t. Not converting everyone to give is a failure. Expect to fail...
According to the 2015 Fundraising Effectiveness Report, last year, gains from new and recaptured lapsed donors were more than offset by losses in the number of lapsed new and lapsed repeat donors—for a net loss in donors of -1.4 percent. Yipes! Do you want to be the exception? Then you have to be of greater service to your donors. To do this, you’ve got to get inside your donors’ heads...
In the nonprofit arena, especially the fundraising profession, leaders are often called upon to be change agents.
For small and midsize charities, stewarding their big-gift donors pays off more than soliciting new prospects, concludes a new study. Surveying charities with less than $10 million in donated annual income to find out which factors enhance major-gifts fundraising, researchers found the groups lost an average of $300 for every prospective major donor solicited. By…
We now are faced with the last eight weeks of the year, the time when we are “make or break” for our fundraising year. Even if our fiscal year ends at another time, the calendar year-end drives a lot of donations. The following are some ways to that can help you focus your fundraising efforts these last eight weeks of 2015...
Lori, the executive director of a social-service agency, shared with me her frustrations with the “flat” performance of the agency’s fundraising. There haven’t been any revenue cliffs or disasters. But no growth, either. She related the agency’s overall fundraising plan to me. It sounded solid. So why has its fundraising revenue been treading water for more than five years?...
