Direct Response

The time to look for that next new fundraising success story is before what you're doing is on life support.

How do you handle donor requests to be removed from your list? This may surprise some of you, but, "Duh! We remove them!" isn't always the right answer. Given that your donor file is so valuable, a well-thought-out strategy is needed for responding in a way that both honors the donor's intent and safeguards your asset.

When fundraising works, it's often because someone took the time to do the "usual" just a little bit better.

Raising revenue in a steady, somewhat predictable way is what allows an organization to accomplish its mission.

The skills you will need aren't "rocket science" — they're the same skills that separate the good fundraisers from the great ones even now in boring old 2014.

Believe it or not, your donors actually have expectations based on specific character traits.

"Fundraising is storytelling," as Brian Cowart, chief development officer at Disabled American Veterans, said yesterday during his sit-down Q&A with Chelsea Clinton at the DMA Nonprofit Federation's 2014 New York Nonprofit Conference.

When you roadblock a new avenue of discussion, just make sure you're doing it because it's a dumb idea, not because trying it would be too hard.

The fact that some writers use clickbait for devious purposes doesn't make the technique itself bad, any more than a pickpocket makes fingers bad.

A great fundraising appeal or email can have many different variables. But a clear call to action must be a constant. So whatever else you play around with in a package, keep your call to action highly visible and to the point.