Originally posted in March 2014, updated in March 2023 One of the most enjoyable aspects of major gift fundraising is getting to build relationships with donors—relationships that last beyond one donation and remain strong even when it’s challenging for donors to give. But often nonprofits squander the relationship-building opportunities given to them by not doing […]
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Continue readingEnough is enough. Nonprofit leaders need to set actual fundraising goals. Unfortunately, nonprofit leaders rarely do. Rather than setting a clear goal, leaders pressure fundraising professionals to raise more. “More” is vague and immeasurable. “More” is unacceptable. “More” grinds us all, even the best fundraising professionals, to a pulp. Because “more” can never be reached. […]
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Continue readingToday’s article covers an integral project for all nonprofits – creating and refining mission and case statements. These documents are a vital foundation for all communication activities a nonprofit will undertake, as Grant Cobb, Head of Marketing and Analytics at GivingMail, explains. Your mission and case statements aren’t just information statements about your nonprofit. While
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Continue readingWhen it comes down to it, successful fundraising is about successfully executing the basics. When you want to raise money for something, be sure to do these fundraising basics: Research Remember, run your dollar goal through a gift range calculator. This helps you know what levels of gifts to be looking for. Engage Before you
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Continue readingMost fundraising professionals know that having good information is the secret to increased revenue, stronger relationships, and more successful appeals. By analyzing the donor data you have available, you can learn volumes about donor motivation and behavior, then use this information to guide your fundraising approach. Donor data can help you with segmentation, marketing, stewardship,
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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 readingEach and every interaction your nonprofit has with supporters comes with a data point. Whether that’s an opened email newsletter, a social media comment, or the many digital donations made during your year-end fundraiser, these interactions provide a wealth of information. If you’re not leveraging this data for more efficient fundraising, you’re missing out. Donor
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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 readingIn nonprofit fundraising, the constant pressure to raise more with fewer resources can be so all consuming that we forget to step back and look at future trends. To help us break out of that, we recently had fundraising futurist Trista Harris in The Nonprofit Academy. Having run an endowment through the toughest economic time
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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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