Acquisition

Don’t Let It Creep Up on You: How to Rock Your Year-End Fundraising
August 9, 2017 at 9:30 pm

Have you started planning how to rock your year-end fundraising? Say what? I can hear you now, “Pam, it’s summer, and I’m going on vacation next week! Stop already.” But hey, the stats don’t lie. Almost a third of all annual giving occurs of December. Twelve percent of all giving happens in the very last…

3 Ways to Increase Fundraising Results
August 7, 2017 at 10:47 am

Have you started planning how to rock your year-end fundraising? Say what? I can hear you now, “Pam, it’s summer, and I’m going on vacation next week! Stop already.” But hey, the stats don’t lie. Almost a third of all annual giving occurs of December. Twelve percent of all giving happens in the very last […]

A Sentence Can Make or Break Your Email Fundraising
August 7, 2017 at 10:21 am

Every single sentence in your email appeals is critical to your email fundraising success. We learned this through an experiment we conducted with the George W. Bush Presidential Center. Before their grand opening, the George W. Bush Presidential Center was running an acquisition campaign to recruit founding members...

Get Your Website Ready for Year-End Donations
August 3, 2017 at 9:19 am

Donations are the lifeline of nonprofit organizations, so it comes as no surprise that the end of the year can be a lucrative time. As potential donors, fueled by the generous spirit of the holidays, look to offload some cash before the end of the fiscal year, some organizations can see almost half of their annual donations come through during this period...

Donors Are Responding More to Personalized Emails (But Which Ones?)
July 27, 2017 at 11:01 am

What’s a trend that has been popping up on the nonprofit radar as of late? We’ll tell you: personalization. Let’s think realistically—anyone can write a letter or type up an email. The key is not to sound like an automated voice message...

Involvement Yields Insight and Money
July 26, 2017 at 11:46 am

As a strategic planning practitioner, I love the process and the outcomes, but I am saddened when a well-conceived plan just sits on the shelf. From a fundraising perspective, a strategic planning process that engages key constituencies and great minds is a wonderful cultivation opportunity, and the resulting plan should give confidence to donors who might invest in making the plans a reality...

How to Tell Strategic Nonprofit Stories That Raise Money
July 25, 2017 at 11:20 am

Storytelling has been "hot" for some time now and for good reason. Our human brains are wired for storytelling. We’re automatically open and receptive. So, you’d be foolish not to use this to your advantage when it comes to your nonprofit marketing and fundraising—especially if your goal is to raise money. Storytelling is not difficult once you get the knack of it...

How to Increase the Success Rate of Fundraising Campaigns
July 24, 2017 at 11:29 am

Most nonprofits rely on donors to fund campaigns that allow their organization to pursue its mission and achieve goals. Convincing prospects to become donors can be challenging if a nonprofit is not taking a strategic approach to identify the most convertible prospects...

Introduction to Strategic Nonprofit Major Gifts Moves Management
July 19, 2017 at 11:26 am

Today, we’re going to look at a great tool for building those important relationships with top prospects over time. And we all know that is what will result in the big gift. You know how important it is to put a plan in place to build relationships, right? It’s super de-duper important if you want to secure major gifts. I’m talking about “moves management...