Summer is a great time to roll up your sleeves and dig into the work of fundraising that will make the next several months even better. So, raise a glass of iced tea in gratitude for the sunshine—and make time for these important, but often overlooked, summer activities.
Don't ever forget to market yourself. You are your most important product and key to your ultimate institutional success. No less than 100 percent daily effort will do. People are watching you—and you set your own performance bar.
This is the final article in a series of three that follow up on questions submitted during the NonProfit PRO webinar that David Gunn from Salsa Labs and I presented. Here are my responses to some of the questions that were raised.
It only takes one person—and it has to take one person—to start a movement or an organization, to turn around a nonprofit, to take a university to the next level, to start or transform a fundraising program. That is the spark.
Continuing my follow-up to the NonProfit PRO webinar David Gunn from Salsa Labs and I presented, here are my answers to some of the questions people submitted. As I said last week, often what one person is asking is the unvoiced question of others.
Collecting data meaningful to gaining better results is within our grasp. GuideStar understands that donors need a way to evaluate their gifts. But they also understand that the data has larger meaning and potential.
Far too often, nonprofit leaders adopt a scarcity mentality. There's never enough. There's more competition for philanthropic dollars subdividing a fixed pie. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
A key to change is the education plus engaging of non-fundraising staff in the fundraising process. This will take time and a great deal of patience. When you approach this scenario, work internally then externally. Understand that each person has different levels of education, experience and interest in promoting fundraising.
Last week, David Gunn from Salsa Labs and I presented a webinar hosted by NonProfit PRO. The title was, "Fundraising Acquisition: How to Grow Your List and Engage New Supporters." Several questions were submitted before and during the webinar. Given that if one person asks, there are probably others wondering the same thing, I'll provide my opinion on some of those questions over the next few weeks.
Many nonprofit fundraising departments are dualistic in their setup. Usually I find that either they are direct-response driven or annual fund/event/major gift driven. (For simplicity, let's call this annual fund driven.) Both are wonderful—yet deeply flawed if one discipline significantly outweighs the other.
