How to use donor surveys to qualify your first-time donors for future fundraising
Long the hallmark of major gift work, qualification through engaging in dialogue with our top-level donor prospects has allowed us to identify those prospects who will entertain developing a relationship with our organization or not. This qualification…
The top 10 ways to strengthen your donor "Call to Action" and raise more money
The number one reason donors do not give aside from not being asked is that they are not provided a problem to solve. Or at least a problem that they understand why they need to solve it. It is in their donor "Calls to Action" that a slight…
The top twelve tips on successfully taking an in-person fundraising event virtual
One of the top questions asked these days are, “How do we take our gala event and make it virtual?” Since COVID-19 has happened, there has been a deep desire to take events and make them all virtual. I assert that it can be done. But,…
The greatest opportunity: a summons for more in our not-for-profits
The Pandemic has been a great global summons. A call. In the middle of the night to awake. To something new. What are you talking about? Yes, it has. I know, I know. You are probably saying it has been a grand inconvenience, even a…
Acquiring New Donors Through Digital Lead Acquisitions in the Age of the Coronavirus
One thing about pandemics, or just crises and downturns in general, is that they tend to expose organizational weaknesses, poor practices, and complete neglect. We can see evidence of this daily around the world today. Systems, structures, and…
Non Donor Conversions During Covid 19: Are You Planning Your Follow-Up Stewardship?
The Coronavirus has presented us all with some very life-threatening challenges. For once, the entire globe is under siege by a crisis impacting us all. It is simply, one word, unprecedented. However, that does not mean that we cannot…
Fundraising After COVID 19
Yes, there will be life after COVID 19. Of that, I can guarantee it. What I can't guarantee is what life will look like. But, what I can guarantee is that life will look and feel different than it does today. Change is almost a constant…
What bushfires taught me about being a resilient nonprofit fundraiser
It was early December when I arrived at my location in Australia. The fires had been burning for several weeks and had been slowly chewing more and more bushland.
As the days rolled on, dark clouds of smoke became even more ominous, and…
How a capital campaign is nothing more than an Annual Fund on steroids
During coaching sessions, I often get asked from professionals in their fundraising positions, "How do I run a capital campaign?" My easy answer, "It's just like a big fundraising campaign on steroids." What do you mean? I learned a valuable…
How our fundraising expectations die a slow death to complacency
Just this week, I have spoken to two coaching clients about the stages of grieving after losing a job. Yes, there are actual stages of grieving that one must go through that follow Elizabeth Kubler Ross identified stages of grieving a death.…
How a major donor prospect fundraising meeting is like a nonprofit archeological dig
What should I say on my major donor visit?
It’s not a matter of what you should say; it is more of a question of what you should do.
To me, an initial major donor prospect meeting is more of an “archeological dig” or an “excavation.”
So…
Making a case for your state-funded organization's fundraising
When meeting with new clients, I often hear this exact same question, "But, our organization receives state and federal funds...how can we realistically make the case for our fundraising?" And, my answer is, "Even more so you can! It…
