Mistakes are inevitable, how a fundraiser responds to those errors is what can really set the organization apart. Instead of spending all our time on looking for someone (anyone but me!) to blame, our first priority needs to be our donors...
The day after Thanksgiving, the holidays hit full-force. And it’s not just the radio stations blasting “Here Comes Santa Claus” every half hour—it’s the shopping frenzies of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Thankfully, (no pun intended) for the past four years, we’ve had a day to shift the focus away from materialism and back to the true spirit of the holidays: Giving Tuesday...
For the first time on record, the nonprofit that received the most in donations in the country is not what you typically think of as a nonprofit—and that has some in the nonprofit sector worried that the new model is upending traditional philanthropy. Giving accounts allow donors to get an immediate tax benefit when they…
One of the toughest challenges in our sector is getting donors to give time and time again—to get one-time donors to become repeat donors. Perhaps it’s showing donors the impact that the organization is making or having a mission powerful enough for donors to want to be a part of the organization. Perhaps simplifying the…
Giving Tuesday has revolutionized giving days. A movement that started in 2012 by 92nd Street Y and the United Nations Foundation, Giving Tuesday aims to “celebrate and encourage giving during a commercially focused season,” Jessie Salpeter, senior digital account executive for Chapman Cubine and Hussey, said during the DMA Nonprofit Federation Conference...
In my 30 years of involvement with philanthropy professionally, when volunteers and professionals think of fundraising, they almost invariably are thinking of that moment when an “ask” is made. Whether through the mail, email, social media or—the dreaded face-to-face meeting—the act of asking for money sends chills up the spine and tremors of fear through the limbs...
Fifteen years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, local military families face deployments to Afghanistan and dangers of war while organizations that help veterans, whose population here has boomed, face higher demand for services. Meanwhile, leaders say the fundraising power of 9/11 has diminished, leaving those charities to tighten their belts. "The need is going…
Gift cards used as recognition are like wiregrass in my fescue, like a dog’s butt on my favorite pillow, like white zinfandel being the only wine served. There is so much wrong with using gift cards as recognition, and actually as gifts in any regard, that it’s hard to even know where to start chewing on the issue. I always have known it was wrong...
If you’ve paid even the tiniest amount of attention to popular culture in the past decade, you’ve surely noticed that a lot of people really, really love comic books and superheroes. What was once perhaps looked upon as "nerdery" is now embraced as mainstream. And so it stands to reason that comic behemoth Marvel will…
The annual fund campaign is a cornerstone of most nonprofit fundraising strategies. Annual fund campaigns refer to a set of strategies that nonprofits implement to raise the funds needed to cover their operational expenses. Generally, they’re made up of three main components: outreach, fundraising events and direct asks. The unifying thread of these components is…
