If everyone is so focused on donor retention, why do people have trouble with the concept of “donor relations” and “donor experience”?...
You might have just read this headline and said to yourself: “I can tell this is going to be really boring stuff—I really don’t need to read or do this!” If this is your story, let me tell you a story. I have had two situations in the last few months where the major-gifts officers have refused to do the kind of planning and prioritizing I am suggesting here...
Every fundraising ask for a gift consists of humans playing various parts to achieve a common purpose. The ultimate purpose of fundraising is to secure large gifts if possible. It is not easy and rather complex. After obtaining a large gift, it always is wise to dissect the ask and seek ways to improve strategy and performance. The next ask always is around the corner...
Fundraisers have a heavy burden, especially when there’s a long list of rules to follow in our fundraising communication to please all the internal pundits. It’s easy to lose focus on the experts in donor loyalty—the donors themselves. So what are the building blocks for donor loyalty?...
I have spoken at and attended many of my clients’ national leadership meetings supporting their peer-to-peer income streams. I have been in a lot of bars and conference hotels and had a lot of conversations with a lot of volunteer leaders about how they came to be there. I met Jean Duffy at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) conference in Little Rock, Ark., this year...
It happened in the middle of a lackluster workshop that I’ve long forgotten. Two participants revealed that they were program staff (no, not fundraising or marketing staff) employed by a local women’s shelter. Their eyes were shining as they enthusiastically relayed how excited they were by the day’s training. They couldn’t wait to get back to the office to share their clients’ stories with development and marketing. It was a light bulb moment for me, you see, because I witness this kind of disconnect every day...
If there is one area of "moves management" that never has sat well with me, it’s the word "stewardship." Stewardship is what you are supposed to do with donors after they give you gifts. The reason I don’t like it is that it conveys more of a passive approach to the relationship with your donor...
In your career, if you ever have the opportunity to consult, take it. We all work in our normal practitioner routines each day. When you are a consultant, you experience a different side of the fence. There is one fence, but if you do both jobs, you see things from different perspectives, and it is stimulating...
In recent years, we’ve seen the rise of two approaches to fundraising practice. I’ll call them the schools of data-nique and incantations. That’s studying data and learning magic. Both make promises they can’t deliver. Although data analysis certainly has its uses, when most organizations haven’t even mastered the basics of human interaction (that is reaching…
I am lucky to be able to spend time with smart people who have great experiences to share. One such person is Jim Leighton, vice president of events and partnerships at Children’s Cancer Research Fund. He straddles management of two sibling events—a virtual, do-it-yourself cycling event that is about a year old and has raised $1.7 million already, and a 14-year-old walk that regularly raises between $200,000 and $300,000...
