As a nonprofit fundraiser, you’re likely under a fair amount of constant pressure to find new donors and raise more money. But a more reliable path to success is to identify donors who are already in your current donor pool and moving them up to become bigger donors than they are right now. Best of all, these donors are right in front of … [Read more...]
To Have or NOT to Have to a Capital Campaign: 3 Reasons for Each
If you’ve been raising major gifts for a while as part of your annual fund (as I’ve encouraged my readers to do for years now), it might be time to consider a capital campaign. This post dives into three reasons to have a campaign, as well as three reasons NOT to have a campaign. 3 Reasons NOT to Have a Capital Campaign Let's begin by … [Read more...]
John Haydon’s Legacy: Improving Donor Retention through Donor Care
Unfortunately, I’m coming to you with some sad news today. This week, we lost a legend in the nonprofit sector. John Haydon lost his battle with cancer. You may know John’s work. He was a prolific writer, blogger, author, teacher, trainer, and speaker. John Haydon's Legacy: Donor Care If you’re not familiar with John's work, I have … [Read more...]
21 Ways to Thank Major Gift Donors: A Round-Up of Strategies
Expressing gratitude is the final stage of the fundraising cycle. It comes after the hard work of identifying and cultivating donors, and of course, asking for their gift. Step 1: Identification Step 2: Cultivation Step 3: Solicitation Step 4: Stewardship (gratitude) In other words, after a donor commits to a gift (donation), it’s … [Read more...]
27 Ways to Cultivate Donors and Build Deep, Lasting Relationships
Building relationships with current and prospective donors (donor cultivation) is easier said than done. It takes patience, persistence, and a lot of smiling. For new (and seasoned) fundraisers, it can be mystifying how to build genuine, lasting relationships that inspire donors to give time and again. Donor Cultivation is a Team … [Read more...]
How to Ask for a Major Gift: 5 Clear Steps in 30 Minutes (or Less)
Today, you're going to learn how to ask for a major gift in five very clear steps. You'll need about 30 minutes of time total to carry out these steps. But before diving in to the "how-to", it's important to know WHEN and WHERE to ask for a major gift. Knowing WHEN to Ask for a Major Gift Let’s assume you’ve built a fairly good … [Read more...]
How to Engage Your Nonprofit Board in Just 15 Minutes per Month
Welcome back to Major Gift Fundraising 201, where we discuss fundraising basics and beyond! You can check out the first post in this series here. Today we’re going to be talking about how to engage your board members in only 15 minutes per month. Engage Your Nonprofit Board in Just 15 Minutes per Month This topic is really important to … [Read more...]
Major Gift Fundraising 201: Board Basics for Raising Bigger Gifts
Whenever I speak at conferences about how to raise major gifts, one of the first topics I cover (after determining what the term major gift actually means) is board member engagement. I ask audience members (or workshop participants) to raise their hands if their organization has 100% participation. In other words, if every board member … [Read more...]
Should Fundraisers Work Christmas Week? What Do You Think?
Historically, nonprofit organizations have raised the majority (more than half) of their fundraising income in the last six weeks of the year, with a large portion of that income arriving during the last week of the year. Not only that, but it’s not unheard of for donors to show up at a nonprofit organization, stock certificate in hand, on … [Read more...]
Setting Goals to Raise More Money: What’s Your ONE THING?
As we head into the New Year, it’s only natural to start reflecting on the year gone by and begin planning for the year to come. As you begin this process, you’ll want to think about things you did well and those you wish you’d done better. The years seem to go by faster and faster. It’s hard to imagine that it was 20 years ago when we … [Read more...]
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