A kinder, back-to-basics approach to donor relations amounted to a 30 percent increase in contributions for D.C.’s Heritage Foundation.

By Margaret Battistelli Gardner

The survey suggested that Heritage had not separated itself in donors’ minds from “just that group of people that they give to,” Walter says, adding that organizations in that position often only get money from certain donors because they are “the first ones through the mail slot when [the donor] is ready to write a check.”