Donor Relationship Management

Who’s got money? Donors do. That’s why relationships with donors are the cornerstone of nonprofits. Without donors, nonprofits wouldn’t find any success in their fundraising efforts. Marketing automation will help your nonprofit maintain its relationships with donors through the use of personalized and useful content. Automatically Send Custom and Relevant Information Find out which people are…

The nonprofit world is all about time, talent and treasure. We all seek ways to engage others in our organizations, so we can build relationships with them. What we hope to get is a family member and, eventually, the whole family as part of your network. If you can orchestrate a way to capture one ‘s attention, the possibilities for further engagement are endless...

This old dog challenges you to think about that old fundraising standby, the telephone, in a new way. Just maybe there’s a stronger donor relationship that will result from a telephone call and a genuine word of appreciation...

Nonprofits need to tell a compelling story the donor wants to enter into. Make what you say relevant to people’s experiences. I may not have a daughter with a disability, but as a parent, I can relate to wanting my daughter to have all the best life has to offer...

On Facebook, it is ridiculously fun to quip, banter, engage, taunt, delve, disembowel and titillate. It is so much fun that a few times I have wandered into “Not-Niceness.” I had to find a way to stop being not nice. And I did. I Facebook-friended every church friend I could find, including my pastor. I friended them all so that they would see what I wrote. I thought that would constrain me. And I was right. It did make me nicer. But why? And more importantly, how could I make use of this behavior modification technique in fundraising?...

Growing your successful individual giving program, including major gifts, is a process, often involving years of cultivation. It’s not about looking outside of your organization, but rather finding the diamonds within your own database. So, how will your organization move from here to there?...

I know that some major donors have given extremely large gifts over the phone, or even in a direct-mail appeal. I’m sure you have heard those stories. But, it’s rare. Donors want you to sit down with them and ask for a significant investment. If you are at a point where it’s time to challenge your donors, the only way to get over that hump is to look a donor in the eye and ask for that gift...

It’s annual report season, for better or for worse. Often it’s for worse, since many of them are long, boring booklets that put your donors to sleep. You don’t have to do an annual report, but you do need to share accomplishments with your donors. You may opt to nix the annual report and send…

An email recently landed in my inbox, and it was all about the ask. As I’m sure you can imagine, it wasn’t the first email I’ve ever received about it, and it surely won’t be the last. The ask is such a nuanced thing, and it lives in a gray area, which is often the case when there’s no one-size-fits-all approach for doing something the right way...

More donors than you know are feeling that they have become strangers, only valued for what they can give. When my business partner Jeff sent me this letter, I took a little trip in my mind. I went to this lady’s home and sat beside her as she was writing. It was a very sad experience. Take a moment to read what she wrote. I have faithfully reproduced it here with slight edits for clarity...