Donor Relationship Management

Have I made mistakes in my past and present? You bet, but I have always cared deeply about each institution and the people I served during my tenure on staff. I constantly try to learn from others, both young and old, to perfect my craft. Nonprofit service is like golf, in the sense that you must constantly practice to become a better player. The dynamics of the nonprofit world are constantly changing and you must adapt and change to be successful...

Are you struggling to nail the perfect appeal letter? Whether we are sending appeals via email or direct mail, we will need to nail the ask. It needs to be solid, heartfelt—and donor-centered. Everybody’s talking about donor-centered fundraising, but in my opinion, very few nonprofits are getting it right.

A sure sign that not much of anything worthwhile is being done in the area of donor relationships is the growing presence of lots of buzzwords surrounding this subject. In reality, my guess is that more folks have married Kardashians than there are organizations that have become seriously engaged in building true relationships with donors.…

By my calculations, in 503 days, it will be over. No, not the world or even the Star Wars saga. I mean the 2016 presidential campaign.

Why is it that most of us don’t tell our story when given the opportunity? A story is much more compelling than dry facts and figures.

Today I am sharing the No. 1 fundraising strategy that you need to implement for 2015-16.

When you have a cause that you're passionate about, successfully engaging another to support that effort requires that you understand his or her particular needs, visions and values. Since ours is an urgent and noble cause, we often make the assumption that the potential supporter will feel as passionate as we do. But often they don't.

You finally have the appointment with your major donor. Don't strike out when you finally get in the door. Here are my top six ways to get the most out of a major donor visit.

I often run into fundraisers who somehow get it in their head that their donors only support their organization. Now, I know if they were being honest and really thought about it they would admit this is not true, but emotionally they act like their donors couldn't possibly support other causes. This is a problem. It's the monopoly mentality.

Continuing my follow-up to the NonProfit PRO webinar David Gunn from Salsa Labs and I presented, here are my answers to some of the questions people submitted. As I said last week, often what one person is asking is the unvoiced question of others.