Strategic Planning

Diane is the executive director of a medium-sized nonprofit in the Southwest. In her projections for next year, she has inked in moderate bumps in her fundraising goals. Seems like that’s insufficient for her finance committee. The members of her committee want absolute certainty on the 2016 numbers. You read it right, absolute certainty...

During the holiday season, our mailboxes are overflowing with catalogs, holiday cards—and requests for donations. At this time of year, when people are feeling most generous, nonprofits work hard to raise needed funds. Although important to nonprofit budgets, most year-end giving is transactional rather than transformational. Donors give once—often devoid of strategy—and nonprofits receive a…

You’ve got a little more than a month left before the bells toll announcing the end of 2015. For most fundraisers, that’s a time for balancing efforts—to end the year strong in terms of income, to use up accrued vacation, to be cheerful at the company party and to keep up on work so 2016 fundraising doesn’t fizzle before Valentine’s Day. Here are five ways to stay focused on what matters in these final days of 2015 while still having time for holiday cheer...

Ask yourself this: Do you have a specific plan for how much money you’ll be raising this year? Have you established a reasonable dollar goal for individual giving, for online giving, for grants, for corporate support, for any earned income? Or, are you operating like the senior center and just treading water? Be honest. Do any of these bright ideas sound anything like yours?...

Omnichannel marketing is like kale. You know it's good for you, but that first mouthful goes down hard. Though nimbly traversing across several marketing channels has been widely accepted as crucial for relevant customer engagement, only 11 percent of companies claim to go down that road. Most (55 percent) admit that they have yet to…

When you look at mid-level donors, what do you see? I see great potential for the future, relationships worth investing in and key leaders who can help secure the future of our organization for generations to come. Upgrading donors from the bottom to the middle to the top of the donor pyramid is going to…

A few years back, famed Princeton philosopher Peter Singer had a student who, like many new graduates, wanted to change the world for the better. The student, Matt Wage, decided that the best way for him to do that wouldn’t be to join the Peace Corps or take a low-paying job at a nonprofit. Instead,…

Cash gifts at calendar year-end are literally the life-blood of many a nonprofit. Nonprofits often receive north of 40 percent of their annual cash during the last 30 to 60 days of the calendar year. Certainly nothing to treat casually. And yet, that‘s something that some organizations do. As with any appeal, it’s important to know what your objectives are...

Our fundraising work allows programs to continue, results to happen and stories to be told because the organization’s mission is being accomplished. One way we may become people who are remembered for years to come is to make sure we are consistently reminding our donors how important leaving us a legacy in their will or trust is to our organizations (and to them). Set in motion bequest gifts with these four steps...

I bet many of you are out there thinking, “Do I really have time for #GivingTuesday?” To that I say, "Yes, you do!" The tools and tactics are all at your fingertips. Remember that other organizations are taking part in this global giving campaign and #GivingTuesday is about visibility and momentum during a vitally important…