Donor Segments

I've had front row seats to this disaster several times: The organization's core donors (those who've been giving for three or more years) suddenly are lapsing at an alarming and unprecedented rate. Or to put it another way, the group of donors who normally have the highest retention rate of all donors suddenly is lapsing at…

For many nonprofit leaders, our reality is that we’re “always on” and connected 24/7—whether it’s checking email on our phones at all hours of the day, carrying tablets or laptops with us on the go, or watching social media mentions from every device in our lives. However, 60 million Americans face the opposite reality: They aren’t online at all. Here are a few myths about digital access we need to check...

A dollar bill’s value is very different depending on the state where it is being used. So, are charities getting the most bang for their donor-contributed bucks? Because of the variability of the dollar, and the always-increasing need for programs and services by charities, one obvious solution is to stay ahead of the curve by continuing to increase donor gift size...

What could you do with a bigger email list? More donations? Volunteers? Capacity? Impact? Probably all of the above. After all, according to a recent M+R Benchmarks report: In 2015, on average, nonprofits received $44 in donations for every 1,000 fundraising emails sent. Nonprofit email revenue grew by 25 percent, faster than the overall rate of…

It seems like ages ago that everyone had personas in their marketing plans—and then they didn’t. All good things come back around...

In most cases, the question of who benefits from your nonprofit is directed at the end-user: What are your program’s outcomes? How does your nonprofit benefit society? But that question is not often directed toward the for-profit businesses that also benefit from your positive outcomes. By digging deep into this question, you will be able to find new funders for your nonprofit...

Millennials are different, and, by 2017, they may have the largest buying power in the U.S. Nonprofits can’t just prepare, they actually must change to embrace them...

I’ll never forget the first time I came across an organization using Excel as a database. I’d taken on a part-time position as grant writer for a mid-sized agency working with women and children. Although I’d been hired to write grants, within weeks, the organization engaged me to write its annual Mother’s Day appeal...

In 1994, "The Seven Faces of Philanthropy: A New Approach to Cultivating Major Donors" was published. At the time, it was a revolutionary practical methodology to address major and planned giving that continues to prove exceedingly effective today. The following are the seven distinct wealthy charitable-donor personalities: Communitarians are the most common wealthy-donor personality. For…

If you work for an institution with donors and prospects who live in or visit other places in winter, you should consider taking your organizational show on the road to cultivate and educate them. What do I mean by that statement? When I worked at a university, we brought the university to its constituents...