Fundraising

Being online is a critical part of your donor’s life. It’s also a critical part of their experience with your organization. So your year-end campaign must be online, too. In fact, to succeed in today’s environment, year-end campaigns must be multichannel — not just direct mail, but also email and social media.

Do you have some fundraising strategies ready to roll to close out your year end campaign or the final three days of the year? If not, you may want to as, depending on your data source, anywhere from 5 percent to 25 percent of all online giving happens in the last three days of the…

I was reminded of recently of the truism behind Ricky Nelson’s lyric “You can’t please everyone so you gotta please yourself” when the

There can’t be many Jeopardy! champions easier to root for than Cindy Stowell. Ms. Stowell has developed a fan base like few other contestants. But she is unable to enjoy her performance on TV, or the outpouring of love from “Jeopardy!” watchers. That’s because she died on Dec. 5, just over a week before her…

As you attend holiday parties, you may have the opportunity to lay the groundwork for meeting with some of your largest donors.

Last week, I mentioned some phrases my parents had said often (it seemed ad nauseam when I was a teen) that, in hindsight, I’ve realized relate to fundraising. Here are a few more “mom-isms” and “dad-isms” that constituted my earliest training in fundraising, whether I knew it then or not...

Households with more than one child are more likely to give, and donate a bigger share of their income, if the eldest is a son, a new study finds. But parents with only one child are more likely to give, and to donate generously, if that child is a daughter. The report from the Women's…

As a fundraiser, I’ve been to my fair share of fundraising parties, often hosted by a board member, donor or volunteer. While these events can be a fantastic way to connect and meet new potential major donors, I typically find them to be awkward, stiff and sometimes a little too heavy on the wine. Recently,…

Paul Ryan has been abundantly clear: As speaker of the House, he won’t spend all of his time jetting across the country to keep the National Republican Congressional Committee flush. But far from being concerned, top GOP moneymen believe the Wisconsin Republican will be a major boon financially for the party. The national network he’s…

Nonprofits can grow faster, solicit donations more successfully and better accomplish their missions through greater use of analytics. If you doubt the benefits of data, you can read the book Moneyball. The book and movie of the same name relate the true story of how Billy Beane, general manager of baseball’s Oakland A’s, rebuilds his…