A few years ago, one of my clients requested rush research on a prospective donor. The client, a development officer at an independent school, explained that the headmaster was planning to meet with a parent to ask for a gift. He believed that the prospective donor had the capacity to make a $300,000 gift, but the development officer thought the number might be higher.
Nonprofits cannot overlook the important role that special events play in cultivating donors and prospects in preparation for the “ask.” Special events create opportunities for you to tell your story, communicate your mission and vision, identify prospects and donors, and expand support. There are two kinds of special events that work well in the cultivation of donors and prospects: events such as fundraising galas and events centered around campaigns. Examples of special events centered around campaigns are kick-off events, events to announce a transformational gift to your organization, ground-breaking events to announce construction of a facility, dedication ceremonies for a new facility, and celebrations announcing
Direct mail is a cost-effective way of raising money that allows an organization to educate the public; can enhance visibility and broaden a donor base; and is a good way to recruit prospects for other non-direct mail fundraising (major gifts, planned giving, volunteer recruitment, etc.). In their session “Why Direct Mail Is More Important Than Ever” at the 44th AFP International Conference on Fundraising, Lisa Maska and Tiffany Neill, both senior vice presidents at Lautman & Company, presented a case study of a small nonprofit launching a direct-mail program to demonstrate the benefits of direct mail and some best practices. Maska and Neill
44th AFP International Conference on Fundraising
Board members can be powerful fundraisers and donor-relationship cultivators, when properly engaged. In a session last Tuesday at the 44th AFP International Conference on Fundraising in Dallas, Gail Perry, founder of nonprofit fundraising consultancy Gail Perry Associates, shared tips for putting board members to work fundraising and keeping in contact with donors to your organization. According to Perry, the two key things that keep boards from fundraising are 1) they are not fully engaged in the organization or passionate enough about the cause and 2) they think fundraising is “asking for money.” She laid out this four-step process that will get board members
Attracting new donors is harder than keeping the ones you’ve got. But keeping the donors you have is easier said than done. The session “Be Your Donors’ Favorite Charity: 10 Tips to Keep Them Giving Again and Again” presented by Heather Burton, product marketing manager at Sage Software, on Monday at the AFP 44th International Conference on Fundraising in Dallas, offered attendees these actionable tips to keep donors engaged and giving: 1. Be accountable. Accountability builds trust with donors. Be forthcoming in financial audits and make sure that you use the money you raise for the purposes you outline in your solicitations, and communicate
Online and offline fundraising approaches each have their place in an organization’s program, but also can be used to complement one another. A session at the AFP 44th International Conference on Fundraising in Dallas on Monday presented by Gene Austin, CEO of Convio, and Bobby Heard, associate executive director of the American College of Emergency Physicians, looked at ways organizations can use the Internet strategically to get more from their fundraising programs. Some of the advantages of online marketing noted by the presenters include low cost to communicate, bidirectional communications, rapid deployment and feedback, and the potential to tell stories visually as well
Case statements are useful for everything from capital campaigns, annual appeals and grant writing. Tom Ahern, founder of nonprofit communications firm Ahern Communications, Ink, says he writes, on average, one case statement a month for a client. In his session Monday at the AFP 44th International Conference on Fundraising in Dallas, Ahern discussed the basics of building outstanding case statements, including how to gather the right kind of information, how to plan a campaign strategy and a formula for presenting a case in print. The key to writing a case is to anticipate all of the big questions prospective donors may have
Other than “Rescue Me” and “MythBusters,” I can’t handle too much television. But I was delighted to find some late-night “M*A*S*H” reruns, and I make it a point to hang with Hawkeye for as long as I can stay awake and still function the next day.
And, I confess, I often find myself fighting back tears as the gang makes the best of a bad situation. (Right about then, someone in my house will admonish, “You know this is fiction, right? And even if it were real, the Korean War ended more than 50 years ago … ”)
In a session she presented at the AFP International Conference on Fundraising in Atlanta earlier this year, Penelope Burk, president of Cygnus Applied Research, a research-based fundraising consulting firm located in Chicago, talked about a study her company had done in 2003. Questioning 267 charities and 145 donors, the study aimed to find out if improvements made to an organization’s back-end service — e.g., thank-you letters, personal phone calls, etc. — could increase donor retention and generate a more rapid increase in gift value among retained donors. The study unearthed interesting findings. First of all, Burk says her company learned that most
