Acquisition

For an organization that was founded 35 years ago — specifically to build one memorial — the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF) certainly has become a master of reinvention.

Looking for the perfect recipe for donor prospect list segmentation? With just a few ingredients, you can tailor every donor prospect acquisition effort.

The added money to invest in acquisition this year may not be enough to solve all your problems, but if you make it work hard and then show the results of that investment, the challenge to get more may be a bit easier next year, and the year after that.

Everyone is wondering — what's going on with American Cancer Society and its direct mail decision.

Here are five direct-mail packages that have a history of success across a wide range of nonprofit organizations. Adapting them to your mission and message can help reduce the some of the risk that goes along with testing.

Do you want more donors? In this week’s episode, consultant Susan Howlett walks you through many different ways to find donors. So many ways in fact, you may want to grab a pen and paper so you can jot them all down.

Many of these strategies are underutilized or not used at all. One in particular may seem fruitless when you first hear it. However, after you hear Susan’s story about undocumented immigrants, you’ll become a believer.

Many charities have welcome programs in place to keep more donors in, make them feel welcome or ask for more money. Here’s a simple 10-point checklist that will help you estimate how much room for improvement there actually is: How fast is your follow-up? How interactive is your welcome program? How relevant is your message? How well do you monitor your program? How is your ROI? Do you have a control and test group? How well do you mix channels? Are you comparing suppliers? Is your program trigger- or calendar-based? Do your departments work together?

In this episode of Fundraising Fundamentals, guests Marissa Sackler, founder of Beespace, and Becky Straw, co-founder of the Adventure Project, discuss what it takes to help a small nonprofit grow — a change that often starts with a move from a garage or basement to an actual office and establishing processes and routines.

Several small groups working together can help one another learn and grow.

One year ago this month, I wrote an article that detailed what may be one of the boldest moves by a top brand in the nonprofit industry. Today's blog is your reminder of all that went into that decision by the American Cancer Society (ACS). Why am I reminding you? Because in two weeks, I will be providing you an update on where things stand and the progress ACS has made on its goals.

Due to the incredible response we received the last time we brought together leading nonprofit experts to share their best fundraising insights, we decided to do it again! That’s right — we’ve rallied 13 nonprofit thought leaders to share their best fundraising strategies, tips and ideas with you. I have no doubt that you’ll improve your fundraising efforts and boost acquisition rates if you take the advice each of these professionals are sharing.