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For the most part, everyone agrees that metrics are good. Accountability is good – even for major gift officers. Generally speaking, measuring what you do… Read More
“Where do we find donors?” I’m asked that question quite a bit. To begin, let’s make sure we check all assumptions at the door. Donors… Read More
Prospect research, RFM, wealth screeners, and other hands-off/arm’s-length methods of donor discovery can only work so well. And more often than not, the people they… Read More
If something about fundraising makes you uncomfortable, it isn’t because there’s something wrong with you but because there’s something wrong with the way you’re fundraising,… Read More
You know that feeling when you’re talking to someone, and you realize they’ve already made up their mind about you? It happens in dating, in… Read More
The most important goals in managing prospects or donors in our portfolios are: Establishing a rapport with donors Maintaining contact Finding ways for them to… Read More
The two most important words in philanthropic facilitation are, “Because you”. As in: “Because you have such a vested interest in the empowerment of girls… Read More
Planned gifts often constitute some of the biggest gifts charities ever receive. But winning them requires you to make the donor think about their own… Read More
The longer I work with nonprofits, the more convinced I become that one of my core beliefs is true: If organizations ceased nearly all new-donor… Read More
One of the most effective strategies for major gifts fundraising is to help your donors advance their personal hero story. This isn’t just our claim…. Read More
I think too many major gifts fundraisers – and people in most other industries as well – are not using their LinkedIn profiles to their… Read More
We customize our approaches for each client, whether it is for consulting or training, by looking at their longitudinal data to identify predictive patterns. Using… Read More
The usual methods for identifying and qualifying major donors are costing your organization huge amounts of money if you are relying too much on them…. Read More
It’s a problem as old as fundraising. How do you find, attract, and qualify people who can give major gifts to your nonprofit organization? Many… Read More
What’s your reason for requesting the first meeting with a prospective donor? The ones I hear most often, including the ones used on me, include:… Read More
Understanding the motives for why donors make major gifts is a big part of successful fundraising. This is how we can relate to a donor… Read More
Funny how we use the word “cultivation” so often but rarely address the preceding step, “planting.” Philanthropic potential is like fertile ground. Figuring out which… Read More
You know they’re in there, somewhere in your donor database. You just need to find them – those small donors who could turn into major… Read More
The days of easy fundraising are over. Now we need to face up to the hard parts of securing and sustaining philanthropic confidence. I’m sorry… Read More
Your biggest major donors simply cannot be treated like all your other donors. If you’re like most mid-size and larger nonprofits, they are funding the… Read More
My concern with so much of traditional fundraising is that it puts one or more parties in an uncomfortable position. Donors feel as if they… Read More
Many major gift officers don’t realize that one of the things some wealthy donor prospects do after receiving a first communication from you is to… Read More
I believe: Fundraising and philanthropy are not interchangeable terms, that the former is dependent on the latter; if fundraising assumes that philanthropy exists to serve… Read More
AI and machine learning are the new buzzwords in the prospect identification field proposing yet another solution to the challenge of building caseloads of major… Read More
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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