When I’m being a fundraising coach, I tend to coach nonprofit CEOs and executive directors. One of my primary tasks I try to help them build into their rhythm is for them is to make 5 – 10 major donor calls each week. But since CEOs aren’t managing a large portfolio of donors, what do […]
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Continue readingMany organizations make the fatal mistake of asking their donors for gifts over and over again without a break for other types of communication. However, when you don’t vary the type of communications and engagement opportunities with your supporters, your donors may start to feel like an ATM, always giving funds but receiving little in
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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 readingFundraising 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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