Annual Campaigns

The other day my daughter and I were walking down an aisle in a department store, and she noticed a huge Halloween products display. "Oh come on!" she said. Too soon. I agreed, and we had a laugh about how I forbid holiday music until after Thanksgiving. Ah, the apple doesn’t fall far from the…

Year-end annual fundraising is when the rubber meets the road. This is the time for creative fundraising campaigns! There’s tons of money at stake this fall. It’s the generous time of year, when donors think about giving. Donors give more, especially in December and the last days of the year...

OK, why am I talking about year-end? It’s August! Well, because that’s how our weird world of fundraising works—at least for direct response. I started presenting holiday campaign ideas to my clients back in July. Literally Christmas in July. That’s what makes the world of direct response marketing agencies extra weird. Because of the lead…

I can remember the day just like it was yesterday—that dreaded moment when my director of development approached me and said: “We need you to get an appeal out. And it should have gone out last week.” To provide context, I was a mere two weeks into my job and had been pulled off task so frequently that I still had no idea what this particular organization had done in terms of past grants...

Are you thinking about participating in a giving day? Good news! There are so many organizations that have given it a try, and you can learn from them (the good and the bad). Look at their websites, donation landing pages, countdown clocks, emails, social media accounts, images and hashtags. Do a Google News search to…

The annual fund campaign is a cornerstone of most nonprofit fundraising strategies. Annual fund campaigns refer to a set of strategies that nonprofits implement to raise the funds needed to cover their operational expenses. Generally, they’re made up of three main components: outreach, fundraising events and direct asks. The unifying thread of these components is…

As major campaigns near their ends, often there is a tendency to lessen the focus on best practices and the campaign discipline that has been key to your success. I believe that campaign goals should be met with major gifts. This strategy always should include plans to maintain and increase your ongoing annual support...

The theme of this year’s IFC is asking the right questions. So here is my question: What is fundraising success? The answer is obvious surely. It’s how much money we raise. Success is based on getting from X amount of money to Y, where Y is greater than X. Look at any fundraising award citation…

When discussing a pending major campaign, it is not uncommon for boards—at organizations of all sizes—to get nervous and to be uncertain. Many board members have not been through a campaign before. Some have been through successful campaigns. Some have had encountered campaign experiences...

You may think fall is a long way off. We just celebrated Independence Day in the U.S., and temperatures are creeping into the 90s. Don’t let that deceive you. September will be here before you know it. Fall is a busy time, especially if you’re doing a year-end appeal. Many nonprofits rely on their year-end…