StrategicOne LLC

First, you must understand how you define a major donor and why. Then, use these 10 ideas when calling your major donors.

This week's insider includes a contact data appliance, a consultant acquisition and a new crowd-funding platform for fundraisers.

During the session "Retooling Your Nonprofit to Optimize Fundraising in Today's Multichannel World" at the 46th annual AFP International Conference on Fundraising in New Orleans last month, Matt McCabe, Mike Rogers and Sandy Ellingson outlined these three main keys to multichannel success.

Many nonprofits are feeling the impact of the financial crisis — in particular those reliant on corporate gifts. Others are bracing themselves for challenging conditions. In difficult economic times, it can be a natural reaction to stop all new investments. Yet, building strong constituent relationships and acquiring new donors to replenish losses is more important than ever.

Nonprofits must adopt a strategic approach to their fundraising investments, cutting less efficient areas and investing where gains can be realized. The traditional fundraising model has been in decline for some time. The financial crisis and competition for donor dollars has heightened the imperative to change models today, re-allocating investment from waning traditional fundraising approaches to new approaches that incorporate the online channel.

So, you want your $100 check writers to start writing $200 checks and your $250 folks to give you $500? Well, all you have to do is ask. Be warned, however, that any time you push to increase the size of a gift you will, more than likely, reduce the response rate of the initial mailing or offer. But the net impact over the next 12 months can be significant and positive. You see, for every mailing from that point on you can begin building your gift array or ask table based on the highest previous contribution. So if you double or even slightly