Acquisition

Most of us can identify with this experience: Agreeing to help out with a project or an organization, ending up more involved than we intended and vowing to say “no” to future requests. And yet, here I am, year after year, running tickets for Hot Times, Holy Enchilada and the other games of chance. The truth is, I fell prey to a technique we subscribe to at Turnkey to help our clients raise more money for their various missions...

Most people, businesses and charities that have achieved great success emphasize the why over the what and the how. Of course, the what and the how are a lot easier than the why, but if you properly understand and express your why, people who feel similarly will buy from you or donate to you willingly, regularly and for a very long time...

This week was all about the fundraising ladies. Andrea Kihlstedt shares a story of a gift solicitation gone wrong and lessons learned from it; Marilyn Donnellan gives us five guidelines for a simplified nonprofit strategic planning process; and Tammy Zonker discusses the five donor love languages...

When it comes to a nonprofit organization’s mission, relationships are important. It is imperative for nonprofits to use everything at their disposal to reach their mission’s goals. It’s a known fact that technology is constantly evolving. It’s easy to think of technology and relationships as two separate entities, but what if we melded the two together to achieve “the bigger picture”?…

One might think that gift range charts are just for large projects, such as capital campaigns or for significant fundraising efforts. And while there is some truth to that, gift range charts can be used effectively in even the smallest of fundraising shops...

Dialogue with your donors, clients or prospects begins with good data; we all know that one tenet of direct mail—garbage in and out. When we go to the mailbox, a treasure trove of information on fun, as well as vital information, awaits us. Some good, some bad and at most, lame or even useless...

There is a popular advertisement on television that must be working well, as it has been on for some time now. The Volvo ad is striking and memorable. It uses verses from Walt Whitman’s beautiful “Song of the Open Road...

There may be as many ways to segment and customize your file as there are ways to leave your lover, but the evidence mounts that the level of commitment a donor has for your organization may be the most important...

I just came back from presenting a workshop on monthly donors to a group of nonprofits in Michigan. One of the questions asked was the one on how to best market monthly donor programs to existing donors, especially for small organizations with limited funds and limited time...

I was speaking recently with Dave Goetz of CZ Strategy, and our conversation turned to challenges facing nonprofit organizations. When he asked what I thought was the biggest challenge fundraisers had to deal with, I didn’t answer with the usual suspects...