Donor Relationship Management

When it comes to a nonprofit organization’s mission, relationships are important. It is imperative for nonprofits to use everything at their disposal to reach their mission’s goals. It’s a known fact that technology is constantly evolving. It’s easy to think of technology and relationships as two separate entities, but what if we melded the two together to achieve “the bigger picture”?…

Fundraising is all about relationships: The depth and quality of relationships between donors and the institution—the organization’s staff. It is also all about numbers. You must have a certain number of donors at specific levels to meet your goal (unless you have one donor driving the project, but then you will most likely eventually have to worry about sustainability)…

Dialogue with your donors, clients or prospects begins with good data; we all know that one tenet of direct mail—garbage in and out. When we go to the mailbox, a treasure trove of information on fun, as well as vital information, awaits us. Some good, some bad and at most, lame or even useless...

There may be as many ways to segment and customize your file as there are ways to leave your lover, but the evidence mounts that the level of commitment a donor has for your organization may be the most important...

Have you ever wondered what the ideal number of people is to solicit a gift? Is a one-on-one meeting best? Perhaps you should bring two people—your president and campaign chair? Or perhaps three people would be even better—president, campaign chair and board member. Sounds reasonable, right? Get a power team to solicit a power gift! But here’s a story that will set you straight...

If love is the answer, what was the question? It seems the question on our minds these days is, "How do I raise more money" or "How do I retain my current donors and get them to give more?"...

I (Katrina) have had several 10,000-hour thresholds in my career. I started my company, Turnkey, in 1989, so my first 10,000 hours happened around 2007 or so. By that time, while certainly not having achieved genius-level competence...

In the nonprofit sector, we wear a lot of hats. We all do it anyway because we care about the mission. We are a passionate bunch. But let’s face it, despite our passion, we all need to get a lot accomplished with a limited budget and limited time to do so. We also need to recognize that cross-team collaboration is vital to fulfilling the mission. Enter growth hacking for nonprofits...

Modern technology allows us to easily collect and analyze data, as well as gain valuable insights from it. This capability is now available to nonprofits of virtually any size and type and can be tremendously effective at helping them reach people, grow their organization and meet their other goals...

This week, we received lots of love on our April cover story about donor-advised funds, followed by Pamela Barden's blog post, where she shares three things to consider when fundraising is no longer "fun," and Pamela Grow's blog post, where she shares her thoughts on donor-centricity vs. community-centric fundraising...