What happens when you don’t invest in donor acquisition? Well, your organisation will face a declining donor base with the need to raise more money from fewer donors. With about 10% of donor bases naturally declining each year, the focus either becomes on raising more money through a small number of donors or deciding to […]
In this day and age, as development professionals, we need to keep our eye both on donor retention and acquisition. It is one thing to retain your current donors. But if you are not constantly acquiring new ones, your donor file will naturally attrite through donors changing addresses, passing on, or just choosing not to […]
For many, as the calendars switch to spring, our organisations begin their budget planning season in preparation of a new fiscal year. As a result, development departments are often hard-pressed to come up budget sometimes right in the middle of a busy special event season. This article highlights the process that an organisation should undertake […]
Donor cultivation events should be an important part of your fundraising program. Whether you are a small or large non-profit, or if you are raising money for annual operations for capital campaigns, you need to incorporate them as a vital element of your yearly development calendar. The first question that I often get asked is, […]
What happens next after you develop your sponsorship prospect list for your next special event? Do you send them all the same letter? Do you make personal phone calls? To whom? How do you get in the door? Who should you ask first? I often work with groups who either blanket send out their sponsorship […]
It all happens to us. Time silently ticks away, and deadlines loom. And, then, BAM, out of the blue, a crisis occurs with a client, or some other proverbial “fire” starts burning. Perhaps it is a last-minute grant deadline suddenly arises, or the photocopier goes out on the fritz, but whatever it may be, things […]
After having served most of my career as a Director of Development in a small organisation, I understand the realities of trying to handle all of the major tasks and responsibilities that come up daily; plus the fires that seem to endlessly start and burn. Major gift work often gets put on the “back burner” […]
Many groups end the year and then move onto their next project starting January 1. While forward-thinking and acting is important, it is also equally as critical to do some analysis of the past year; calendar year-end, particularly, since it is a barometer of the overall health of your development program. Since I believe that […]
Let me share a story with you… A few years back when I first started consulting, I provided organisations like yourself with strategic fund development audits and assessments and then crafted finely honed plans. What I thought were roadmaps to launching an organisation’s successful fundraising program, were not. Why? When I asked my then clients, […]
Now that December is here, I have been running many lists and queries and during those list pulls, I have noted inconsistent data in databases that have caused numerous complications during one of the busiest times of the year. As a result, I thought it important to run this blog article again to serve as […]
Fundraising volunteers are critical to our success as they are the “ambassadors” of our fundraising efforts. I often get asked, what is the best way of recruiting them to join in fundraising efforts? And, while I believe that, in some cases, if you put it out there they will come, sometimes you need to be a […]
Annual campaigns can be run just like capital campaigns. Yes, you heard it right. Far too often, I see an annual campaign as only a single, direct mail campaign. However, you can apply the same campaign structure to annual campaigns as you would capital campaigns and other major gift campaigns. Below, I outline steps that you can replicate […]
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