Donor-centered fundraising has been a constant all my fundraising life. Over time, it’s become a nebulous sort of construct, and that might be where some of the confusion comes from. But to me, donor-centricity always has meant embracing your donors like the valuable friends and partners that they are...
When people give to causes that are deeply meaningful to them, they feel like a million bucks. Understanding this—truly, deeply understanding this—is so important I’m going to repeat it in bold and italics. When people give to causes that are deeply meaningful to them, they feel like a million bucks. This is the key to…
A home base is important in life. Family and friends that you trust, feel safe and grow with. This home base can give you confidence to take risks, learn new things, set higher goals and grow like you otherwise never would...
We all know the sorry state of donor retention: 96 donors lost for every 100 gained. Join us to learn how to hold onto donors.
"What do you mean you lost the check?" the manager almost yelled. "How could you do it? It was $75,000, for goodness sake! $75,000 of someone’s life!" It was not a pretty situation. I wasn’t there, but I heard about it in great detail just a week after it happened. Someone had lost a donor check for $75,000! It was gone. Vanished. Vaporized...
Every so often, I'll read a blog post titled something like, "9 Ways to Write Better Fundraising." I love pieces like that, because I'm fascinated by what people consider "short-list" critical elements for success. And, as often as not, I learn something from those lists. The thing that dismays me is how often one of those…
Starting a successful charitable organization relies on the success of one simple action: raising money to support that cause. Whether your charity only needs startup funding or your group will rely on contributions in the long-run, raising money toward a cause is a top priority. Thanks to the prominence of corporations in the media, it…
How well do you know your donors and their motivations for giving? Your donor thank-you letters are only the first step in your donor retention plan. If you’re looking to create sustainable funding, you need to develop a plan for understanding your donors and their motivations on a deeper level...
Good recipes are road maps to desired outcomes. Do you want to eat a homemade load of bread? Follow these 10 steps, and you’ll have one in a couple of hours. Recipes can be easy or hard. They can take practice and require tinkering. But once someone develops a good recipe, anyone should be able…
If the way forward for fundraising is not how to get money out of me, the donor, but how to inspire me to tell the organization's story and engage my network, then we, as fundraisers, should really be after those "opt-ins." And if someone is feeling so annoyed by charities contacting them that they want…
