Fundraising is filled with things that seem to make sense, but don’t. One of those areas is when it comes to thanking donors. When we thank donors, we think we need to prove to them that we did great work. So we fill our donor newsletters with Statistics (we fed X many people) Staff accomplishments
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Continue readingFor decades, we’ve known that face-to-face meetings were the best way to raise major gifts. Talking directly to people. Taking them on a tour of the project. Being in the same space as the donors. Meeting face-to-face is so important, most major gift officers’ job performance is measured by how many in-person meetings they have,
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Continue readingDo you have a system for expressing gratitude? For telling your nonprofit’s donors how grateful you are for their support? In my weekly coaching email, Fundraising Kick, we’ve been looking at systems we use in fundraising. Using a system allows you to make a decision one time, rather than needing to make decisions with each and
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Continue readingDid you read the “Outspoken Donor” article in a recent Chronicle of Philanthropy? I didn’t like it very much. But some of the donor’s experiences with fundraisers are chilling. For example, she says: “Development officers sometimes think that because you gave money to one particular cause, you’re expected to give to something else, too, and
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Continue readingSo many fundraising problems can be solved by interacting with donors. Getting to know them. Asking about their interests. Learning their stories. I call it “seeing donors in their natural habitat.” But if you’ve had years and years of only focusing on your nonprofit and what you do and how great your staff is, interacting
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Continue readingPrivate coaching clients have been emailing me the doom and gloom articles on the latest Giving USA report. Giving was up about $3 billion but when adjusted for inflation, giving was down in 2018. This should grab our attention. But not for the reasons you think. In answering a coaching client today, I ended up
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Continue readingNonprofits love sending email. It doesn’t take all the printing time of direct mail. And it costs less. But what if your emails aren’t getting to your list? In the last few weeks, Google and Yahoo have tweaked their algorithms – the systems they use to determine if your email is wanted or unwanted. In fact,
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Continue readingExcellent fundraisers know that fundraising is about a relationship with a donor. Since they’re a “donor,” the relationship is centered around their giving. But it is a relationship. That giving is linked to a donor’s values and passions – things that make her uniquely human. And it’s those values and passions that contribute to a genuine
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Continue readingLast month, at the Nonprofit Storytelling Conference, I saw Jeff Brooks help nonprofits understand donor communication by sharing a great image. I wrote about it to my Fundraising Kick email subscribers. But I wanted to share it here. Hopefully it’ll help as you write your next fundraising letter or thank you note! SUB: Who’s leading
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Continue readingWe often hear people claim they’re going to “disrupt” an industry, even fundraising. “This will change everything,” they promise. And the implied threat is that you’d better adapt or get left behind. They are usually selling a website or an app that is supposed to take away your fundraising woes. Usually by making you sell
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