Out of the thousands of organizations a donor could support, the donor chose you. The hardest part is behind. That first gift is the hardest to secure, right?
Harvey McKinnon
Otis Fulton, Ph.D., spent most of his career in the education industry, working at the psychometric research and development firm MetaMetrics Inc., Pearson Education and others. Since 2013, he has focused on the nonprofit sector, applying psychology to fundraising and donor behavior at Turnkey. He is the co-author of the 2017 book, ”Dollar Dash: The Behavioral Economics of Peer-to-Peer Fundraising,” and the 2023 book, "Social Fundraising: Mining the New Peer-to-Peer Landscape," and is a frequent speaker at national nonprofit conferences. With Katrina VanHuss, he co-authors a blog at NonProfit PRO, “Peeling the Onion,” on the intersection of psychology and philanthropy.
Otis is a much sought-after copywriter for nonprofit fundraising messages. He has written campaigns for UNICEF, St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, March of Dimes, Susan G. Komen, the USO and dozens of other organizations. He has a Ph.D. in social psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Virginia, where he also played on UVA’s first ACC champion basketball team.
“There’s a good chance that our [monthly donor] did not select her two favorite charities and then join their monthly programs. Most likely, she responded to the two charities who asked her first.” — Harvey McKinnon from “Myths of Monthly Donor Programs: Challenging the Myths About Monthly Giving Programs,” as quoted by Krista Harte Sassaman, senior account director at Epsilon, in her session, “Monthly Giving Basics & Beyond: Shattering the Status Quo With Your Sustainer Program,” at the DMA Nonprofit Federation’s 2008 Washington Nonprofit Conference last month.
Stopping passers-by in the street and asking them to sign up, there and then, to a monthly electronic payment to your nonprofit may, on the face of it, seem the quickest possible way to lose friends and irritate people. And so it is. Fundraisers worldwide may have found face-to-face fundraising stunningly lucrative — in the short term, at least — but they’ve also contributed to general resentment and dislike of the way charity fundraisers do business, and probably to quite a few future bequests being scrubbed from wills. In many main streets and shopping malls of the United Kingdom, Europe and elsewhere, potential donors are
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April 25, 2006 By Abny Santicola, editor, FundRaising Success Advisor In his session on monthly giving at the AFP International Conference in Atlanta earlier this month, Harvey McKinnon, CFRE, said monthly giving benefits organizations in a few ways. *It increases your income; *It builds better relationships with donors; *Donors give to your organization longer; and *It provides a predictable source of donations. Seven essential components to a monthly giving program, according to McKinnon, are: 1) A donor base; 2) An appealing mission; 3) An ability to communicate your message; 4) An effective processing system; 5) An integrated marketing strategy; 6) A focus on
Four Characteristics of Senior Givers Four Characteristics of Senior Givers March 28, 2006 By Abny Santicola, editor, FundRaising Success Advisor Most nonprofit development professionals know that older donors like to give via direct mail. But what are some other traits of this massive donor demographic? In a recent conversation, Harvey McKinnon, president of Harvey McKinnon Associates, a donor-relationship consultancy based out of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, shared some of the other giving nuances common to senior donors. 1) Seniors are prime candidates for monthly giving. Electronic pledge programs where people give, say, $25 a month to a charity are an easy sell
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