Fundraiser Education
March 10, 2017 at 3:34 pm
With the world’s finest online tools at our disposal, one of the most integrative tools is social media. Social media plays a huge part in growing our online presence. We wouldn’t have the capabilities to spread our outreach so far without it—email can only get us so far...
March 10, 2017 at 2:31 pm
Through my experiences of fear and working to move past it, I also know what it’s like to live in freedom. Believe me, that freedom place is so much better. Today, I’m going to outline what it looks like when major-gift professionals allow fear to take over and then what it looks like when we can live in freedom. ..
March 10, 2017 at 2:02 pm
If you’re just starting out or if you’re in the growing stages of your monthly donor program, here is my number one recommendation: Put someone in charge! If you do this now, it will avoid “finger pointing” or worse—decreasing programs—later...
March 10, 2017 at 1:53 pm
An anonymous donor contributed $1 million to a pool that will fund free access to NYTimes.com for students across the U.S., the New York Times said in a press release. The $1 million donation was one of more than 15,000 collected by NYT since it launched its "Sponsor a Subscription" program on Feb. 3. Besides news…
March 10, 2017 at 10:16 am
In early February, the Internal Revenue Service and various tax agencies issued an alert warning employers of a Form W-2 email phishing scam. The scam was well known among private-sector businesses—the Democratic National Committee famously fell for a similar version—but the IRS updated the alert to include school districts, health-care providers and, yes, nonprofits...
March 10, 2017 at 10:02 am
I travel from time to time to Chicago for mandatory meetings, which I enjoy attending because I can interact with a variety of colleagues. During a recent trip, I had dinner with several senior peers where we thoroughly discussed special events. I have not been responsible for a significant special event for several years, so I listened intently. I am always interested in building new fundraising pipelines...
March 10, 2017 at 9:22 am
Early indications do not favor the Trump administration throwing more money toward human services. So, it appears that people living in the superpower that we call home are going to rely increasingly on the work of nonprofits. The inconvenient truth, though, is that those doing the good work are being "systematically starved," as highlighted by…
March 9, 2017 at 9:29 am
Is it time to urge the AFP to launch a formal effort to update the Donor Bill of Rights, incorporating donors from offline and online sources, into a single, updated and relevant document? I argue it is, and that part of this effort should be to invite—and consider—input from the fundraisers in the trenches...
March 9, 2017 at 9:01 am
Philanthropists, especially those who become evergreen, see giving as a relationship—an ongoing relationship. They give for reasons, which are intensely personal. Those reasons are almost never material. They give to realize their personal values for self-actualization. Nonprofits that understand this appreciate that when they ask for an investment, they’re offering something of far greater value than the financial resource a donor offers...
March 8, 2017 at 11:09 am
We are working with a client with several high net-worth board members who have been donors, but not at a level commensurate with their giving capacity. This organization is moving from a focus on special events—where their annual giving was a program of event sponsorships—to a relationship-based culture of philanthropy. The reality is that while…
