Strategic Planning

Donor behavior is becoming less transactional in nature as donors now act as philanthropists in more sophisticated and strategic ways. Donors are narrowing the number of causes they support, donating more to those causes, and doing so with an expectation of engagement and 
accountability we once saw only from a select few. Donors of all shapes, sizes and types have become strategic philanthropists...

As a promotion at recent fundraising conferences, my team had the idea to give away pedometers to the more than 4,000 fundraisers in attendance. If they walked 33,000 steps at the conference, and sent a picture confirming their totals, we’d make a $25 donation to their nonprofits. I thought this would become the Ice Bucket Challenge of fundraising conferences. It did not...

Social media may be good at raising awareness, but—contrary to the success of the Ice Bucket Challenge—it may not be so great at getting people to donate to an organization. This was one of the significant findings of a new study published in Sociological Science. The research found that while social media campaigns may attract…

I'm amazed at how often organizations with experienced fundraising professions veer off track. As fundraising professionals, we do no good for those we serve and for our profession by wavering on best practices. What does this mean? It means having a professionally developed fundraising plan that leverages the most effective and efficient methods in order to achieve fundraising goals...

Whether your 2015 fundraising strategy was a success or a total bust, there are likely a few hidden gems to uncover in the data. Before you finalize your 2016 fundraising calendar, go through the information that you gathered from last year’s campaigns and look for trends or unusual activity that you can leverage for better…

How well does your newsletter work? Many organizations now use newsletters to communicate about their work. That’s good! But I see so many organizations produce fancy pieces that aren’t doing their jobs. Do newsletters right and they can be a serious source of income–by delighting your donors. Miss the mark and you’re throwing money away.…

With the presidential elections heating up, you’re probably busy weighing the similarities and differences between candidates. But, as a nonprofit, you can take away a lot more from election season than simply knowing where candidates stand on important issues. Turns out, you can learn a lot about how to improve your very own fundraising strategies.…

If you work for a small nonprofit, you quite likely spend a portion of your week frustrated. You have great ideas, but they are often stymied by (1) a lack of budget, (2) a lack of time or (3) a lack of staff to put them into action. I confess I used to suffer from Big Organization Envy (BOE)....

Governance and risk management—two of the biggest concerns in the nonprofit sector right now, according to “Managing Risk in a Riskier World,” a study of top nonprofit executives by accounting, tax and advisory firm CohnReznick...

When you convert from another donor database you will have a lot of questions: How long is the process? Who will I be working with? How can I clean up my data? Will I be trained? Can I apply filters? The most common question asked during a conversion is “what do other organizations do?” in…