Major Gifts
Fundraising: Donor Discovery Visits Find ‘Treasure’
What’s the most effective way to raise money? Special events, direct mail, phone calls? The reality that many board members of nonprofit organizations often find difficult to confront is that face-to-face visits remain the most effective strategy for fundraising, far outpacing special events, direct mail and telephone calls. Personal visits for fundraising fall into three…
Read MoreFundraising During a Pandemic?!
5 things you can do to raise more money in the 4th quarter of 2020 “A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week.” – General George Patton Nonprofits are three quarters into calendar year 2020, which is a logical time for reflection, and recalibration as you enter the best four fundraising months of the year. The…
Read MoreConnecting with People
In the fundraising consulting business, we deal with people every day. If we are to work with them effectively and successfully, we have to be able to make personal connections. Connecting with people allows us to create the conditions for our own success and the success of the organizations we strive to represent. Connecting with…
Read MoreCommunicating the Ask
All charitable organizations need generous contributions to meet their obligations and reach their potential. People with discretionary resources want to make a difference in the world through their charitable contributions. How do you connect those in need with those who want to make a difference? Properly communicating the ask. This sounds easy, and there is…
Read MoreHow to effectively Communicate and Persuade in a Nonprofit Environment?
You have seen it written many place before: fundraising is, at its core, a profession based on communication. We work hard everyday to help people understand our values, our mission, and our task. More than just communicating, though, we seek to persuade. Not just to help people understand our mission but to convince them to…
Read MoreBuilding 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.…
Read MoreChoosing 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,…
Read MoreThe 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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