Association of Fundraising Professionals

A generous couple in Saskatchewan; an outstanding family foundation supporting causes around the world; a volunteer legend in Vancouver; a fundraising pioneer in Wisconsin; a dynamic brother-sister team in Georgia; an inspiring newspaper project in Calgary; and a heroic young woman in Minnesota are all recipients of the Association of Fundraising Professionals 2013 Awards for Philanthropy.

On Sunday, the Association of Fundraising Professionals kicked off its 50th International Conference on Fundraising, and it kicked things off in style. How? With fundraising legend after fundraising legend … as well as Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter John Legend.

At the 47th Association of Fundraising Professionals International Conference on Fundraising back in 2010, three fundraising professionals hit on the topic of "Getting the Younger Donor to Say Yes." The Human Rights Campaign's Lindsey Twombly, one of the presenters of the HRC's case study at Engage, joined representatives from Convio and PETA in the session, "Yeah, Yup, Right On — Getting the Younger Donor to Say 'Yes' to Your Nonprofit."

Whether you’re new to a development leadership role or a seasoned executive, you must consider personnel issues. Much like a football coach who takes over a team, think about each part of the organization and how the pieces fit together. A fundraising coach knows that success depends on a total team concept. Each fundraising organization has elements of governance through its board of directors and administration with executive leadership and staff. These various individuals must execute strategic and operational plans for success to occur.

While volunteer and professional fundraisers must have useful information to effectively perform, organizations must protect sensitive items and keep them confidential. I’m going to provide you with eight tips that will help you keep your organization safe and your prospects and donors happy. Before a crisis happens at your organization, take the time to review your organization’s own prospect research and information sharing protocols.

Fundraising researcher Adrian Sargeant found that “improving donor retention by just 10 percent can double the lifetime value of your donor database.” So how do you capture those lovely LYBUNTs (Last-Year-But-Not-This-Year donors)? We suggest more strategic and more frequent or targeted communications (surprise!). Here are some approaches you should try at home.

Announcing the 2013 Fundraising Professionals of the Year Awards Rising Stars.

Three fundraising professionals on the front lines discussed a multitude of issues surrounding the fundraising sector, including corporate trends, major donor concerns and changes to the tax law at the Association of Fundraising Professionals New York City Chapter's annual meeting.

Those were the words from Association of Fundraising Professionals President and CEO Andrew Watt at the AFP New York City Chapter annual meeting last Wednesday. Watt gave a keynote presentation where he "sounded the warning," stating those very words, that "the tax deduction in the big scheme is not all that important."

How do you choose your fundraising strategies? First, of course, you start with the body of knowledge. You choose your fundraising strategies based on all those books by the industry experts. Next, you look at the results of all of your organization’s fundraising. You analyze response rates and examine your return on investment (ROI). You compare current results to the last several years. You explore trends and their implications. And now … try using a special set of nine criteria that I’ve developed for my clients.