Today, are your donors feeling like they made a mistake by giving to you? If so, it could be because too many nonprofit organizations have forgotten that the donor experience goes beyond taking a donation and doing wonderful things with it. It has to loop the donor back in—not just ask for another gift. It needs to tell the donor what he or she is making possible...
It is important to be metrics-driven in fundraising. Yes, fundraising is relationship-based, but it is vital that metrics, including the number of visits and the number of asks, be included in goals and performance reviews. This is not just for accountability—it is a very useful tool of focus for the fundraising professional...
I was recently talking to Susan, a development director for a regional nonprofit, and she was lamenting that she had another gala to put together. Even though this gala takes an enormous amount of time and effort from the staff, the executive director and the board want to keep it going because it brings in almost half of their revenue each year. Susan wasn’t upset about all the time and effort it took to pull it off each year, but the fact that the revenue generated by the event was really in transactional gifts, not mission-oriented gifts...
The development world is acutely aware that some people will never give. Naturally, we assume these non-donors are of no value to our organization. The reality, though, is that we’ve just presented them with a stimulus that does not match their expectation to take the desired action we request. They may never respond well to being asked for money, but we might be able to come up with something that would work better—if we could get past the idea that philanthropy is a sector without a product...
At the end of November, I made year-end donations to 25 organizations. Because I was worried about people who would be left behind in the new administration, 11 of these were new donations. I wish I could tell you that all these organizations sent glowing thank you letters and have been following up with engaging updates…
I can’t believe 2017 is already here! Are you ready for it? Is your fundraising ready for it? How will you be increasing fundraising revenue and strengthening donor relationships this year? Learn what smart fundraisers will be doing—and download a free 2017 fundraising and marketing calendar!...
If you knew that 80 percent of your unsatisfied constituents would unsubscribe from your email, would that make you more concerned about satisfaction? What if unsatisfied constituents translated to your email list or Facebook community shrinking?...
Most fundraisers spend an inordinate amount of time and energy worrying about making the case for their organization. But a far more productive undertaking is to get to know your major donors—particularly why and how they want to give. Find that out and you’ll have a sense of what you should ask them for and…
We are behind in our Christmas fundraising efforts. From a seasoned fundraiser perspective, nothing weighs more heavily during the holidays than the stress of that simple fact. It is now my job to create the plan of attack for the next nine months to achieve the fiscal year fundraising goal, which will not be easy. When others in need depend upon your success, you constantly strive to seek solutions...
Why do donors go away? Here's some research from Know Your Own Bone: "Why Donors Stop Giving to Cultural Organizations: Data." The finding includes the top reasons donors stop giving: Not acknowledged/thanked for previous gift: 244 Not asked to donate again: 199 Lack of communication about use of funds/result of gift: 174 "Forgot": 138 Gave…
