Here’s what I learned about leadership in 2019. I hope it helps you!
In the age of Fundraising Climate Change, leadership at nonprofits is needed more than ever. However, what I learned last year is that leadership is… Read More
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Greg Warner
Jan
02
2020
Nov
13
2019
5 Ways You Can Get Meetings with Major Donors (Even When They Won’t Answer their Phone)
I hear the following all the time when I ask fundraisers about their efforts to land meetings with major and legacy donors: “I tried calling,… Read More
Oct
17
2019
The 80-20 Rule is DEAD!
It’s no longer 80-20 but, rather, 70/.7 According to our research, tons of nonprofits spend most of their fundraising budget on efforts focused on acquiring… Read More
Oct
02
2019
Introducing, Louis Diez— The Checklist Guy for Fundraising Excellence
Some people really know how to be givers. You know what I mean don’t you? From time to time all of us come across people… Read More
Sep
13
2019
3 simple steps to break your transactional, spray-and-pray fundraising addiction
Nonprofits tend to get addicted to transactions they generate mostly by aiming marketing toward potential supporters with low-capacity. I call it ‘spray and pray’ marketing… Read More
Aug
26
2019
Finally, the true cause of high fundraiser turnover!
Recently a lot of people have been writing about the high level of turnover among fundraisers in our field. As reported in The Chronicle of… Read More
Aug
23
2019
The power of convenience: A follow-up to my post about online will-writing tools
The power of convenience as an influencer and motivator of outcomes is enormous and should never be underestimated. Ours is a culture of convenience; we… Read More
Aug
20
2019
How to ask for a gift: Do you really have to ask?
At MarketSmart, we don’t close sales and we don’t close deals. When it comes to how to ask for a gift, you’ll see there’s a… Read More
Aug
14
2019
Online will-making tools: My pros and cons.
Brace yourself. This is a long post because there’s a lot to be said. I wrote it because digital will-writing tools are popping up to… Read More
Aug
07
2019
Are your letters to major donors and donor prospects any good?
Direct mail is NOT dead! However, ‘spray and pray‘ direct mail should be! Long live one-to-one, highly relevant, personalized communications— including direct mail letters! Direct… Read More
Aug
05
2019
GUEST POST: A Great Idea… Connecting With Donors Through Photo Books
This is a first! I’ve never had anyone write a guest post for my blog. But when I saw what Daphne Powell was doing to… Read More
Aug
01
2019
If you like VERITUS GROUP and you like me… now you can get both together!
Alignment. Have you ever met someone for the first time but felt like you had known them forever? Like you had a mysterious connection instantly?… Read More
Jul
31
2019
At last, the Fundraising Report Card is now 100% free for nonprofits
In case you’ve never heard of it… The Fundraising Report Card is a little application I had my staff build a couple of years ago…. Read More
Jul
29
2019
A perfect example of ‘spray and pray fundraising’
This email wasted my time and annoyed me because… I don’t know this person I don’t know this organization I didn’t give her or them… Read More
Jul
21
2019
Top 10 Reasons Why Fundraisers Might Be Uncomfortable ‘Making The Ask’
Let me know what you think about my top 10 reasons why some fundraisers might be uncomfortable making the ask: 10. They are in the wrong job and… Read More
Jul
16
2019
Why your capital campaign feasibility study could be leaving a lot of money on the table.
I think most campaign feasibility studies leave a ton of money on the table. Here’s a hyper-simplified description of how it usually works. You hire… Read More
Jul
10
2019
A digest of last year’s best blog posts (titled ‘The Best Of SmartIdeas’) is now available… for FREE.
If you’ve ever hoped for a digest of my best posts, today is your lucky day! Each year, my staff review the data to determine… Read More
Jul
08
2019
Here’s what’s missing from moves management.
Something about the term moves management has always made me feel uneasy. When I first heard the phrase I figured it was all about managing… Read More
Jun
25
2019
How to get your donors to respond to you WITHOUT asking them to respond to you
Does polite persistence really work any more? When I first got into sales, my uncle told me that polite persistence was the key to achieving… Read More
Jun
24
2019
Are you a dictatorial boss or a dynamic nonprofit leader?
I think too many nonprofit leaders don’t really know how to lead. Instead they just boss people around. Having a title means you have authority…. Read More
Jun
18
2019
Giving increased .7% but you won’t hear many people celebrating and that’s really too bad
They were wrong. Remember when the Lilly School predicted at least a $13 billion drop in giving due to the Trump Tax Cut (which would… Read More
Jun
17
2019
Why major and legacy donors think your fundraising communications stink!
First, it is not all your fault. Well then, can we blame it on leadership? Leadership should share the burden of blame because fundraisers tend… Read More
Jun
11
2019
Now Available: Executive Summary (PDF) of My Webinar On ‘Fundraising Climate Change’
A few weeks ago I hosted a webinar about Fundraising Climate Change (a term I developed some time ago and included in my book titled… Read More
Jun
04
2019
When you should NOT conduct face-to-face fundraising
Essentially, there are two types of face-to-face fundraising. When fundraising staff, leaders, and board members (or other supporters) meet with highly qualified, major and or… Read More
Get the book!
Feeling like your job is getting harder because donor expectations have changed and competition for the charitable dollar is growing?
Finding that the old orthodoxies and conventions espoused by so-called experts in online echo-chambers and at conferences don’t work anymore?
Want to help more people make impact by facilitating their acts of philanthropy but feel like too many obstacles keep getting in your way?
Then this book is for you.
Engagement Fundraising was developed from the perspective of a donor who discovered firsthand that the impersonal, spray-and-pray approaches of his beloved charity were not only offensive but also wasteful and ineffective. So he took action. And now, you can too.
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