Survey, contact and interview your donors all you want. There's real value in doing so. But that value may turn out to have more to do with cultivation than with predicting their future behavior.
View your fundraising position not only in increased revenue terms but as a lobbyist. Your job is to educate, communicate and engage old and new internal and external constituencies in the life of your organization with respect to philanthropy.
At the DMA Nonprofit Federation's 2013 Washington Nonprofit Conference last week, three fundraising professionals provided a step-by-step approach to make your data work for you to help send more targeted messages in the session "Donor-Message Matching: Increasing Response Through Offer Optimization."
Three fundraising professionals on the front lines discussed a multitude of issues surrounding the fundraising sector, including corporate trends, major donor concerns and changes to the tax law at the Association of Fundraising Professionals New York City Chapter's annual meeting.
Go out and have those conversations, share and collaborate with your fundraising colleagues and peers. It is an invaluable resource that the fundraising industry is truly special to have and embrace.
Dunkin' Donuts is selling travel cups for $3.99, with $1 from each sale donated and distributed among four regional food banks. As an added incentive, the cup gets customers 99-cent refills until Dec. 31. Talk about a great incentive for a great cause!
During the session, "Who's Your BFF? Building Lasting Relationship With Grant Makers," at Blackbaud's bbcon earlier this month, Heather Stombaugh and Matthew Stombaugh from JustWrite Solutions provided a few resources fundraisers should utilize when seeking grants in order to find their "Best Fit Funder."
The third annual FundRaising Success Virtual Conference & Expo takes place today. Check out the agenda and join us for a fundraising-filled day.
The importance of donors cannot be overstated. And two recent events have driven that point home for me.
Since the year-end holiday giving season is so vital to the fundraising sector, it's never too early to start planning your end-of-year campaigns. So with that in mind, take a look at last year's Fundraising Success Gold Awards Multichannel Campaign of the Year winner, the MSPCA's Holiday Tree Campaign. And remember to get your entries in for the 2012 Gold Awards for Fundraising Excellence. The deadline for entries to be in our office is Friday, Sept. 7, with the winners announced in our October issue.
