Donor Relationship Management

Today’s changing landscape is constantly evolving the nonprofit sector. And with the evolution of digital technologies comes more opportunity for fundraising—especially when it comes to event fundraising. RAISE 2017 is the first national conference for event fundraising professionals, and it’s all taking place from Sept. 25 to 26 in Washington, D.C...

What’s a great way to steward your donors? Memberships! By incorporating membership options into your nonprofit organization, you’re allowing your donors to be more engaged in the organization. It also gives them some added benefits and simplifies giving, so they don’t “forget” to donate...

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?...

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?...

Who are your highest value donors? A major gift officer would likely answer the question with a list of the top 10 donors from the past year or current top prospects. A direct marketer might quote the top RFM segments or pluck a group with the largest previous contribution...

As a strategic planning practitioner, I love the process and the outcomes, but I am saddened when a well-conceived plan just sits on the shelf. From a fundraising perspective, a strategic planning process that engages key constituencies and great minds is a wonderful cultivation opportunity, and the resulting plan should give confidence to donors who might invest in making the plans a reality...

Unconscious bias affects our ability to raise funds for our missions. But their effect doesn’t always have to be negative. Understanding bias allows us to navigate around it, sometimes mitigating its effect, so that it doesn’t impact our bottom lines...

Storytelling has been "hot" for some time now and for good reason. Our human brains are wired for storytelling. We’re automatically open and receptive. So, you’d be foolish not to use this to your advantage when it comes to your nonprofit marketing and fundraising—especially if your goal is to raise money. Storytelling is not difficult once you get the knack of it...

I’ve been a monthly donor for many years. Two years ago, I did a little experiment: I joined 20 organizations to see what they would do (10 small and 10 large organizations). I wanted to experience their “thank you” process, their subsequent communication stream, tax letters, emails, lapsed recapture (if any) and upgrade process...

Since 2008, new donor retention rates are down 22 percent and repeat donor retention rates are down 11 percent. And let’s face it, 2008 was not a banner year for fundraising (or really anything in the economy, if you weren’t a character in “The Big Short”). So, we are either getting worse at retaining people, or lower retention is happening to us because of systemic changes...