Acquisition

Get in the Spirit: 5 Best Practices for a Fruitful Year-End Fundraising Campaign
August 16, 2017 at 11:29 am

Once the leaves begin changing colors, we know that we’re entering the fall season, which also means we’re at the cusp of the most exciting—and generous—time of the year. The holiday season is kicked off with the most playful of them all: Halloween, where children, and adults alike, engage in ghoulish activities...

Pop Quiz: How to Approach the Richest People in Town for a Gift
August 14, 2017 at 11:16 am

Do the wealthiest people in your community seem beyond your reach? Perhaps there’s a business person in your city who seems to have her fingers in most everything. She is the developer of the town’s most prestigious residential community...

Who Else Is On Board?
August 14, 2017 at 11:11 am

Any major gift officer who has been working for a few years has heard this phrase uttered by one of their donors, “Well, who else is going to fund this project? I don’t want to be the only one to invest in it...

Let’s Say ‘No’ to Automatic Sustainer Upgrades
August 14, 2017 at 11:07 am

At the recent Bridge Conference, I enjoyed several wonderful sustainer sessions. During one of those, someone asked about the automatic sustainer upgrade process some nonprofits are apparently using. My hair immediately started standing up straight! What happened to being donor-centric?...

We Don’t Provide Direct Service, We Have No Stories to Tell
August 11, 2017 at 9:11 am

Your organization has no cute kids, puppies or people that you regularly serve. But you keep hearing that you’re supposed to share those “mission moments” about real people to engage your community. How does sharing powerful stories work for you?...

Don’t Let It Creep Up on You: How to Rock Your Year-End Fundraising
August 9, 2017 at 9:30 pm

Have you started planning how to rock your year-end fundraising? Say what? I can hear you now, “Pam, it’s summer, and I’m going on vacation next week! Stop already.” But hey, the stats don’t lie. Almost a third of all annual giving occurs of December. Twelve percent of all giving happens in the very last…

3 Ways to Increase Fundraising Results
August 7, 2017 at 10:47 am

Have you started planning how to rock your year-end fundraising? Say what? I can hear you now, “Pam, it’s summer, and I’m going on vacation next week! Stop already.” But hey, the stats don’t lie. Almost a third of all annual giving occurs of December. Twelve percent of all giving happens in the very last […]

A Sentence Can Make or Break Your Email Fundraising
August 7, 2017 at 10:21 am

Every single sentence in your email appeals is critical to your email fundraising success. We learned this through an experiment we conducted with the George W. Bush Presidential Center. Before their grand opening, the George W. Bush Presidential Center was running an acquisition campaign to recruit founding members...