Professional Fundraising
The Future of Planned Giving – Seniors and the Online Revolution
Almost 80% of the wealth in the U.S. is in the hands of older Americans. The Depression/World War II generation controls over $43 trillion, which it will transfer to families, the government and those charities who can get their messages through. The median net worth of older households in 1993, the latest year for which…
Read MoreThe Five P’s of Leadership
There are whole libraries full of things that tell you what to do about leadership and how to remember what’s important. Here’s another short edition to that library – the 5 P’s of leadership. They are:
Read MoreCapital Campaign Essentials: The Case Statement
There are four essential elements to every successful capital campaign. In our Capital Campaign Essentials series, we provide a quick overview of each of these four elements so that you can successfully grow your organization’s fundraising influence. This article focuses on defining a case and teaching you how to build a case statement. Check out…
Read MoreCapital Campaign Preparation
So you’ve decided to conduct a capital campaign on behalf of your organization. This campaign and its success will help determine its future effectiveness in providing services consistent with your organization’s mission and purpose. You’ve taken all the appropriate steps, including a comprehensive feasibility study to ensure that your base of support is ready, willing,…
Read MoreSuccessful Solicitation: Prepare and Follow-Up
In the fundraising profession, we are constantly learning from each other. In fact, sometimes we learn as much from projects that do not exceed our expectations as those that do. When meeting with clients and potential clients, I often point out that fundraising is not rocket science. Anyone can ask a prospect for money. What…
Read MorePareto’s Principle – The 80-20 Rule
Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923) was an Italian economist who, in 1906, observed that twenty percent of the Italian people owned eighty percent of their country’s accumulated wealth. Over time and through application in a variety of environments, this analytic has come to be called Pareto’s Principle, the 80-20 Rule, and the “Vital Few and Trivial Many…
Read MoreGuide to Creating a Major Donor Rating Chart, Part 2
Last month, we advocated in the Fundraising Free Press that organizations cull their databases and speak with board members about people who could be major donors. To get very practical, we offer in this article a sample spreadsheet with commentary to – hopefully – make clear how to do the science of rating and then how…
Read MoreUpgrade Your Capital Campaign Committee
In a well-organized capital campaign, it is the Campaign Executive Committee, or CEC, that understands and assumes responsibility for the success of the campaign. The members of the committee are often serious business professionals in their own right, but each campaign is typically a multi-million dollar project. Therefore, as fundraising counsel, we cannot assume that…
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