Retention

During a recent orientation session with two new major gift officers, one individual asked me to define the term “case for support.” He was very eager to learn what I thought about the concept. It is an essential part of the fundraising process, and I'm not the only one in the profession that feels this way...

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...

With the rise of laptops, smartphones, social media and more, nonprofits now have more tools available to them for engaging donors than ever before. The problem that comes with having so many choices, however, is that it can be difficult to figure out exactly which engagement techniques are most effective. To complicate the matter even further,…

You have a donor offer you a gift before you are in a pending major campaign. What do you do? The ideal result of ongoing cultivation and engagement is for a donor to say, "How can I help you?" It is important that you have an answer where the donor can be a hero and make an impact. And this opportunity needs to be in the near future to keep his or her interest, create momentum and honor the offer...

Nonprofit leaders have a valuable resource hidden in plain sight. It's their board members. Your board is not just for fundraising or decision-making. Its relationship capital is worth a lot more. It can help meet many of your organization's needs. Combine the connections your board members have built over their careers with the right opportunities,…

I began my career as a fundraiser at a large nonprofit. I loved that prospective donors were familiar with the work of my organization long before I ever had a chance to talk with them. But like many other charities, almost everyone I encountered had a very strong opinion about our nonprofit. I heard everything…

Several times a year you need to revise your caseload. Two things happen when you do this. You remove donors who no longer meet your caseload criteria and you add new donors who do. This is important because, as a successful major gift officer (MGO), you need to be regularly renewing the donor mix on your caseload and bringing more and more valuable donors into relationship with you who want to relate in a more personal way...

Whenever people sign up to receive my emails, they’re encouraged to share their biggest fundraising challenges. Here’s one such challenge recently shared with me that many organizations face: The biggest challenge we are facing at the moment is with landing larger donations ($1,000 to $5,000+), both in terms of attracting new, higher-level donors and also…

Donor loyalty. Sometimes it seems as if it has gone the way of the dinosaurs. We talk about it, write about it, hold meetings about it and strategize for it, but it’s still missing from many nonprofit supporter lists. Donors are acquired and then they attrite. It’s just the reality we live with...

Those of us who were able to go to college have it pretty well off in the United States these days, with unemployment levels for graduates holding at less than 3 percent, which is to say full employment, or pretty close. Listening to the news and our presidential candidates, it certainly does not feel that way. But…