Fundraiser Education

Political giving in this presidential election year won’t dampen support for charities, according to the latest survey commissioned by Dunham and Co. and conducted by Campbell Rinker. Instead, most donors said they plan to give at least as much as they did last year. Nearly eight out of 10 donors (79 percent) indicated they would…

Want your next fundraising campaign to be a success? Nail your emotional response. Whether it's online, at a gala or delivered through a street canvasser, it's the most important thing a nonprofit can do to raise funds. Here’s why: Emotions are the No. 1 drivers of actions. That means sharing and donating. In everything you do…

According to the 2015 M&R Benchmarks Study, online monthly giving grew by 32 percent in 2014, compared to just 9 percent for one-time giving. A longtime staple of fundraising programs throughout the world, monthly giving finally is gaining traction in the U.S. Nonprofits are realizing that it’s a potential gold mine, especially for smaller organizations...

Content is the heart of your successful fundraising strategy. If you don’t sell it, you won’t connect with your audience. And if you don’t do that, you haven’t got a snowball’s chance in you-know-where to persuade folks to give to you to further your mission. ...

A recent study indicated that the average development director lasts just 19 months in his or her job. Having just passed the 19-month mark in my first development director job, it seemed like a good milestone to take stock of the factors that helped me find success and satisfaction. So, here are five things I’ve learned, firsthand, that are integral to being a successful development leader...

To achieve long-term success as a major gifts officer, you have to understand how complex your world is in reality. You are an explorer as you set sail to build new relationships—internally with staff, administration and volunteers, and externally with prospects. You must have clarity of purpose and focus as each relationship and fiscal year is different...

Every day, it seems like there is a new, shiny thing to play with in the nonprofit space. Some of them will stand the test of time. Others will not. But rumors of the death of “X” (where “X” is direct mail, unrestricted giving, segmentation, corporate philanthropy or whatever else is tried, true and boring) are greatly exaggerated. Highly effective nonprofits are doubling down, improving on what they know works, has worked and will work, regardless of whether their stories make for great dinner party anecdotes...

Whether you deliberately set out to be a fundraiser or you simply “landed” in a position, if you enjoy the work of fundraising, you probably hope to get ahead in the field. That may mean you switch organizations or that you take on more responsibility where you currently are working....

Brian and I had a delightful conversation last week. Brian is the CEO of a faith-based charity in the Southwest. He wanted to talk about the age-old conundrum of whether to ask for a specific amount when you solicit a gift....

Is the charity-wristband trend making a comeback? Figures from the four charities selling the new Unity band for World Cancer Day (WCD) suggest it might be. For some of the charities, online stock of the bands sold out by Feb. 8, four days after this year’s WCD on Feb. 4. After selling 670,000 Unity bands…