Donor Relationship Management

It may sound hokey, but try to keep a gratitude journal. Not just any gratitude journal, but a donor-gratitude journal. Write down five things each week about why you’re grateful to your donors. You can be grateful to specific donors or to donors as a group. Just get in the habit of thinking about what you’re specifically grateful for...

There is definitely the tendency in our sector to write off “in-memoriam” donors as one-time donors, yet I think we must understand the emotional connection and make an effort to grow that relationship—with tact and in the gentlest, most-loving way possible...

Let me say this one final time. No discipline—no growth. Major gifts are all about staying focused on the plan and working it. This requires meeting consistently with a manager to discuss what has been done and what you will be doing to nurture relationships with your donors. Do this and you will be successful...

Passion is defined as compelling enthusiasm. Imagine if your donors simply oozed with excitement about the work you do at your organization (not just for the cause in general). How would they be different from the donors who just melt away, day after day, like the ice cube in the bowl?..

Your organization’s major donors are, after all, right in your backyard. Yep, they’re already in your donor database, and you just have to know how to work them. Here’s the 411: If you’re not honoring your first-time or small-dollar donors and if your systems are broken, you’re going to have a hard time getting from here…to there...

When you fully embrace what I am talking about, you learn to focus on relationship and conversations versus getting distracted by the “yes” and “no.” You learn to take your time and nurture things along, to really value the donor and to really listen and care.

With the immediacy and ease of email, there’s no need to rely solely on formulaic thank you notes. You can send a standard thank you note with its more formal language, but I encourage you to pair it with an email, phone call or text message that makes a more immediate and personal connection...

In last year’s installment of this annual nonprofit trends feature, we wrote that something felt different about all the change happening in the sector. We chalked it up to urgency. Acceleration. Things were changing fast. That was nothing compared to what’s in store for 2017. We collected insights, observations and predictions from some of the nonprofit sector’s smartest people, and we’re delivering them to you here. We hope the 40 ideas here paint a clearer picture of the sector as it is and as it will be...

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...