Donor Relationship Management

This year I wanted to 1) motivate nonprofit communicators to reflect so they'll increase the impact of their work this year and 2) share the core lessons learned with their peers. Thus the "most valuable marketing lessons learned in 2010" survey was born.

Fundraising pros Dane Grams and Richard DeVeau offer some general tips for small and midsized nonprofit organizations.

With a modern constituent relationship management solution, your organization can take "digging deep" to a whole new level. Your next-generation database increases efficiency, improves coordination among your staff and — most importantly — enables you to strengthen your relationships with your donors, the lifeblood of your organization.

Robert Croft and Jennifer Renner shared three keys that make the difference between mediocre fundraising and successful fundraising in tough times during an AFP presentation.

At the Direct Marketing Fundraisers Association Year-End Luncheon, veteran fundraising expert Roger Craver, founder of DonorTrends and editor of The Agitator, shared five fundraising trends to get on top of in 2011.

Here are nine things about fundraising I've discovered along the way that I really wish I'd known earlier.

According to the recently released 2010 Global State of the Nonprofit Industry survey by Blackbaud, four global fundraising trends emerged from the data. Here are those four trends shared in the press release.

Now Mr. Breslin, the head of Water for People, a global water and sanitation group in Denver, is trying to do something to reverse the track record of failure. His group is seeking to rewire its relationship with donors by sharing information on failures as well as successes, developing technology that provides real-time information on the status of projects, and persuading philanthropists to pay less attention to simple measures like how many people have been reached by a project and more on whether it will still work a decade from now.

Crowdsourcing is a new way of consulting your donors and supporters to figure out how to enhance your fundraising and unearth new ideas to achieve your mission.

Analyzing trends in the fundraising world is important on many levels. It lets you know what's happening in the industry, what that may mean for the future and how it compares to the past. Studying trends also lets you know where you stand compared to other organizations, allowing you to pinpoint what your organization is doing well and what it needs to work on.