Fundraiser Education

Retailers may be gearing up for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but there's another phenomenon fast spreading online—Giving Tuesday—the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving (Dec. 1 this year), which encourages people and organizations around the world to give to meaningful causes. Last year, spurred by the hashtag #GivingTuesday, people around the world donated tens of millions…

The fact that members of Congress feel the need to raise enormous amounts of money isn’t new. Sometimes, the question that matters is how lawmakers solicit contributions. Fundraising in the wake of a terrorist attack, for example, can raise awkward questions about basic propriety. NPR recently reported on one vulnerable Senate incumbent who’s arguably approaching…

University at Albany advancement administrators conduct one-on-one meetings with young alumni, individually connecting with potential donors to convince them to give back to the institution. The goal, assistant director of young alumni programs Brian Rudolph said, is to instill giving habits in the recent graduates. Though the tactic is expensive, it is effective, he said. Philanthropy…

Ask yourself this: Do you have a specific plan for how much money you’ll be raising this year? Have you established a reasonable dollar goal for individual giving, for online giving, for grants, for corporate support, for any earned income? Or, are you operating like the senior center and just treading water? Be honest. Do any of these bright ideas sound anything like yours?...

No matter the mission, size or location of the organization, nonprofit professionals always are looking for ways to increase their fundraising numbers and invest more dollars into making the world a better, safer place. One way to do that is through nonprofit merchandising. With the technologies at every organization’s disposal these days, there’s no shortage of ways nonprofits can incorporate merchandising into their plans...

As fundraisers, our jobs are to say, “yes,” and get others to say, “yes,” as much as possible. Think about it. Your whole job is to get others (colleagues, bosses, administration, program people, vendors, support staff) to say, “yes,” to donors. And that “yes” is so you can have your donor say, “yes.” Do you have the greatest job in the world or what?...

In 2016, marketing and communications professionals will stop targeting millennials as one demographic and focus on reaching the younger consumers based on their passions, according to a study released this week by Hotwire PR. The agency's seventh annual "Communications Trends Report," which was based on crowd-sourced data from 400 communicators across 22 countries, revealed that…

John Paulson’s $400 million gift to Harvard earlier this year touched off a new chorus of an old complaint: Why don’t the rich make mega-gifts to charities that help the truly needy? That, in simple terms, is the question at the heart of new research by Bridgespan, the nonprofit consultant that works with both philanthropists…

The National Philanthropic Trust released its 2015 Donor-Advised Fund Report last week, revealing that 2014 marked a year of growth in all of its key indicators, including the number of donor-advised funds, total contributions to them, total combined assets and total grant dollars distributed. Of the estimated $358 billion in charitable contributions in the U.S.…

Fifteen years ago, public school teacher Charles Best started DonorsChoose.org out of his classroom in Bronx, N.Y. He set out with a simple idea: Invite teachers to request supplies they need and allow citizen-donors to make direct connections with specific classrooms. The mission of DonorsChoose.org isn't unique. On the contrary, there are many organizations that…