Building a Strong Solicitation Team

Details are important in every industry, but especially so in fundraising. Every conceivable aspect of how to raise money has been placed in the balance and weighed against the alternatives. This is most evident in the manner in which solicitations are performed. One of the first rules of fundraising is that people give to people.…

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Choosing a Stellar Campaign Leader

Dedicated volunteers are worth their weight in gold to your charitable organization. These high-level volunteers, including your campaign leader, provide credibility and undertake the essential relationship-building that helps attract friends, supporters, and financial resources to your organization. In a successful capital campaign, the importance of committed, high-performing volunteer leaders simply cannot be overstated. In fact,…

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The Fundraising Rule of Thirds

The fundraising industry has a lot of rules of thumb that development professionals apply to the situations we encounter. What we have to avoid is leaning too heavily on these rules in an effort to make a difficult job easy. The Oxford English Dictionary defines “rule of thumb” as a “roughly practical method.” That is…

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Board Development in a Campaign Setting

A successful capital campaign often affects not just the financial position of the group, but also other areas. Your organization’s relationships with others can grow as a result of a successful campaign due to its board development, which can undergo a significant transition throughout a capital campaign. The Board’s Responsibilities There are a number of…

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Fundraising Campaign Success: Making the Calls

Everyone starts their campaigns with high hopes for success; no one designs their campaign with failure in mind. So why do as many as 40% of capital campaigns fail? The number one reason why campaigns fail to reach their goals and their potential is that they simply did not make enough calls. They did not…

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A Couple of Heartwarming Fundraising Stories

Fundraising can become such a mechanical process, in which we focus on rating prospects, writing proposals and scheduling logistics. This is never truer than in the midst of a capital campaign, when the pace of activity must be very high and everyone is focused on the bottom line of the campaign’s financial goal. In these…

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Campaign Progress Reports: The Basics

Reporting on the progress of a capital campaign is a vital function of an efficient and effective fundraising initiative. Capital campaigns are often large endeavors that can appear overwhelming and unaccountable. They are actually precise initiatives with a specific schedule of activities that must be accomplished in a particular order. Therefore, it’s important that your…

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Beyond the Bake Sale

One of the major recurring issues faced by non-profit organizations is the need to fund the annual budget. Highly successful organizations have a reliable source to which they can look to provide these funds. Most of us, however, must spend considerable time with our hands out. This article discusses two ways to alleviate the reliance…

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