How to approach your major donors during your calendar year-end campaign
How to approach your major donors during your calendar year-end campaign
When organizations start to segment their calendar year-end appeal letters, they often start off with segmenting out active donors and non-active donors. Far too many…
How to have the most leverage in your new fundraising office
Many organizations when seeking to start their first development office do not which way to turn or where to start first.
Far too many organizations often start and end with grant writing. They don't get beyond this particular strategy…
How to segment and personalize your year-end fundraising campaign
It is year-end campaign planning time.
Far too often I see organizations using a blanket approach with their donor base. With a few minor tweaks in their strategy, they can increase their revenues by a third, sometimes even double.
What…
How to find new donors for your nonprofit organization
Each year, approximately 10% of your non-profit donor base will attrition naturally through death, moving, or just not giving any longer. Then you add lapsed donors on top of that natural attrition, and you are looking at an eroding donor…
How to re-engage lapsed donors in your organization
A lapsed donor is one who has lapsed from giving at least a calendar year. They are the most significant donors to focus your efforts on re-engaging since they have already demonstrated an interest in your organization.
There are several…
How to have an immediate impact in your new fundraising position
You have just been offered a job as a Director of Development and now what?
Well, over the past twenty years, I have had my share of jobs and have started some fundraising offices within nonprofits as part of my consulting practice. As a…
How to follow up on your direct mail appeal letter
Do you mail a spring or fall direct mail appeal letter and hope for the best? Well, "a wing and a prayer" is not a strategy. A strategy by definition is a plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major or overall aim.
Here are some…
How to create a quick and easy fundraising plan to help you reach your goals
So, maybe you have been operating without a plan up until now. And, that is ok, but it is not strategic, and to meet your goals, you need to have a plan that you follow, monitor, and correct if needed.
Here are some simple instructions on…
How your direct mail appeal letter typesetting can help your letter raise more money
One may think that the content or copy of a direct mail appeal letter is King (or Queen), but studies have found that there is something else as equally or maybe even more important than what the letter says.
What is that one thing?
Typesetting. …
How a gift range chart can help you raise more money even in your small nonprofit
One might think that gift range charts are just for large projects such as capital campaigns or for significant fundraising efforts. And, while, yes, there is some truth to that, gift range charts can be used effectively in even the smallest…
How to run a successful Mother’s Day fundraising campaign
At the start of Spring, our thoughts turn to flowers, sunshine, and our Mom's! And, for many nonprofit organizations, this is a great direct mail theme and just in time for a Spring appeal.
So, how can you maximize this appeal to give your…
Oh, the woes of a nonprofit fundraising database!
So, let's talk database.
What? That seems like something so mundane. Well, it may be, but it is so critical to fundraising.
Throughout my professional career, I have been victim to bad databases, and I have been asked to work with bad databases.
One…
