We believe that being a major gift officer is the hardest fundraising job in the industry. It’s incredibly hard. You have to not only develop relationships with donors, but with every one of your colleagues to help you inspire and solicit donors with your organization’s great projects...
At the end of the day our organization and I need highly trained and motivated volunteers to help in a variety of roles, especially fundraising. A board retreat is a great tool to use for this purpose. I strongly encourage annual retreats...
Mistakes are inevitable, how a fundraiser responds to those errors is what can really set the organization apart. Instead of spending all our time on looking for someone (anyone but me!) to blame, our first priority needs to be our donors...
There is a lot of talk these days about fake news. Fake news is intentional misinformation. Falsehoods. I recall getting an email from a friend during the 2008 presidential election. The information presented was shocking, but appeared to be from a “reliable” news source. I spent 15 minutes on Google and found that the information was completely false...
Don’t forget fundraising compliance. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that moving your fundraising campaign online means the rules don’t apply. Who rules and manages the Internet? If a donor decides to give to you online, that’s on them, right?...
There’s quite a bit of noise out there in the major gift world on management—what next step to take, how to approach the donor, how to frame the ask, etc. And still, with all of that information, Jeff and I find hundreds of major gift officers frustrated in their jobs...
By now, you know the tremendous power monthly donors have. You know how it can help improve your donor retention to much higher levels. We typically see monthly donor retention rates between 87 percent and 95 percent—that’s double that of one-time donors...
While “winning the lottery” and “find that pot of gold” are nice strategies to dream about, there are some more practical things you can do to get a better understanding of who your donors are—and they won’t require any more expenditure of your already stretched budget...
Digital outreach is a crucial component of how nonprofits engage with potential donors. The importance and reach of a nonprofit’s digital efforts require a dedicated professional—or more—to maintain them...
We are big on not attending the same professional conferences year after year. Take a break from your routine and attend a new conference—maybe one outside of your nonprofit sector. This year, I’m taking a break from AFP to attend a different conference and I plan to be back at AFP next year...
