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Ronald J. Schiller (a veteran fundraiser with too many accolades to list here) wrote a fantastic book titled Belief and Confidence. In it, he draws… Read More
First, a really quick story. I was flying home from a speaking engagement last week when I found myself sitting next to a very sweet,… Read More
1. Are you really doing direct mail well? I like to say, “Be donor-centric. Be personalized. Be relevant. Or be gone!” If you’re sending tons… Read More
First, a quick story: I once heard a story about a University that was getting ready for a big campaign. Not surprisingly, several fundraisers at… Read More
I like populism because it gives regular people control over their government. But populism has no place in major gift marketing. To generate more major gifts,… Read More
Everyone wants new major donors. Most nonprofits spend a lot of time and money noodling their data to find them. Yet there’s a simple way… Read More
1. Major and planned gift donors want to engage on multiple channels. Tweet this! They want to involve themselves with and support your mission on more… Read More
The funny thing about fundraising is that just about every nonprofit has plenty of data, plenty of prospects, and some even have wealth screened data—… Read More
According to an article in the Journal of Economic Psychology, saying thank you can actually have a negative effect on your relationship with a supporter…. Read More
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” – Thomas A. Edison – “Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no… Read More
I was tired of waiting. When I was just a donor, I was frustrated with the letters, newsletters, and emails I received from my beloved… Read More
At MarketSmart, we get super-excited when a new organization signs up to work with us. And why not? It is, after all, a genuine thrill… Read More
Give until it hurts? Like so many other things I dislike about traditional fundraising axioms, this one has always rubbed me the wrong way. Remember,… Read More
There’s a ton of information out there about how to ask for a donation. Here’s a 52-page report from AFP (link removed – report now… Read More
Mark Zuckerberg’s big $100 million gift in 2010 In 2010, Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook founder and CEO) gave $100 million to help fix Newark, New Jersey’s… Read More
Does your organization really appreciate its supporters? Many private businesses have customer service departments because they want to increase the lifetime value of each customer…. Read More
Fundraising IS marketing and selling Yet some fundraisers think it’s different from other forms of marketing and sales when it isn’t. Somehow the altruistic aspects of… Read More
Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors has spent the past 120 years advising one of the worlds most philanthropic families— the Rockefellers. Today they help their clients give away… Read More
Believing that you are imposing on your supporters by asking them for money. Remember, they want to give. The key is to think of yourself… Read More
I created Engagement Fundraising and invented our software because I’m really a donor, not a fundraiser. In fact, I have never been a fundraiser according to Webster’s definition… Read More
Each year I like to review which blog posts were viewed most by my subscribers (and which were viewed least). Here are the top 5:… Read More
In the nonprofit world, it’s widely recognized that retaining donors can be quite challenging. If it wasn’t challenging… if it was easy, everyone would be doing it and doing… Read More
According to Fidelity Charitable, most donor-advised fund account holders included or will include a bequest in their estate plans. You might not think that matters… Read More
Trust is crucial, necessary and vital. I think all of us would agree that one of the most basic reasons why any major donor would… 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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