Smartideas

Straight talk about major, mid-level and legacy gift fundraising to help you be a better fundraiser

Donor Cultivation: A Term We’re Using Out of Context

“Cultivation.” It’s one of the most frequently used words in fundraising, but used by so many in so many different ways that it has become… Read More


The Power of Emotional Intelligence in Fundraising: A Lesson from Bill Crouch

Over the last decade, I’ve had the privilege of learning from Bill Crouch, the founder of BrightDot and a fundraising expert with decades of experience…. Read More


A Fundraiser’s First Obligation

A fundraiser’s first obligation is to philanthropy itself. All ethical fundraisers and fundraising organizations must commit themselves, at a bare minimum, to do no harm… Read More


8 Ways to Cultivate and Strengthen Your Mid-Level Donor Relationships

You know that your mid-level donor relationships matter. These amazing supporters have greater potential to become major donors. They have higher donor lifetime value because… Read More


You Won’t Inspire Philanthropic Investment By Acting Like a Charity

Charitable appeals stress pressing need and urge the would-be donors to give immediately and out of empathy in response to adversity such as natural disasters… Read More


The Truth about Wealthy People and Philanthropy Should Affect Your Fundraising… But Does It?

In your organization, it’s likely you have a bunch of people who make five or six figures interacting with people who are worth seven, eight,… Read More


Strategies for Nonprofit Leaders in an Era of Declining Confidence

What must nonprofit leaders do to counter the public’s declining trust in institutions? First, the decline is real and pervasive, as can be seen through… Read More


3 Donor Related Fundraising Challenges Keeping Your Revenue Down

Major gifts fundraising faces many challenges. That’s not news, and those challenges come in many forms, from many directions. But donor-related fundraising challenges often get… Read More


The Top 4 Motivations for Giving and the Peril of Ignoring, Misinterpreting or Underestimating Them

Survey after survey we see the same things, and have for years. When we ask donors why they give to various organizations and they say,… Read More


10 Traits to Look for When Hiring a Major Gifts Officer

Gift officer turnover is a major challenge for many nonprofit organizations. While there are many reasons for this, and we touch on this topic regularly… Read More


The Most Important, Least Understood Fundraising Truth

You don’t raise more money by converting more prospects into donors each year, but by converting more current donors into deeper believers with each passing… Read More


Mastering Donor Outreach: 5 Mistakes to Avoid and 6 Best Practices to Boost Your Results

Donor outreach is hard. There’s no sugarcoating required. We all know it. But like anything, there is a skillset, and you can learn it and… Read More


Don’t Squander Your Philanthropic Potential

Do you want to know the secret to being a better fundraiser? Segment and tailor your funding requests to your donors’ level of receptivity. Here’s… Read More


Why Traditional Major Donor Assignment Processes No Longer Work As Well As They Once Did — And What You Can Do Instead

It’s amazing how many so-called best practices get fixed and set in place, and then never questioned from that point on. Look up anything about… Read More


Fundraising’s False Proposition

It’s so common we don’t even see it any more. We keep putting forward a false proposition – that all we need is money. Money… Read More


Why Fundraiser Turnover Is So High

Fundraiser turnover is an epidemic. And that’s not just our opinion or an attempt to be dramatic. Actual researchers used that label to describe the… Read More


To Find Your Best Fundraising Opportunities, Remember This

A significant portion of donors are underwhelmed or dissatisfied with their giving experience, including yours. You may have assumed they are satisfied because they continued… Read More


Debunked Fundraising Myth: The #1 Reason People Don’t Give Is Because They Weren’t Asked

It gets posted all over social media. Featured in books. Heard at seminars. Repeated on webinars. It’s hard to work very long in fundraising without… Read More


Don’t Chase Prospects, Look for the Willing

When we think of people as prospects, we approach them, more often than not, with our lists of what we want them to do for… Read More


The 6 Core Elements of a Well-Told, Well-Executed Donor Fundraising Story

Before you think this is another post about how to tell great fundraising stories, read this: This article is not about the elements of how… Read More


The Ongoing Discouragement of Our Best Fundraisers When Their Talents are Most Needed

I hear from them almost every day. Smart, hardworking, principled, mission-driven fundraisers. They share examples of the mindless, myopic metrics visited on them by people… Read More


Do low-dollar donors even matter?

It’s a sensitive topic considering the fact that the vast majority of revenue for nonprofits comes from major donors. The answer, or course, is that… Read More


We Can’t Make People Philanthropic But We Can Deepen or Discourage Their Philanthropy

In a long career that led me to interact with thousands of donors, I can say with certainty that I never caused a single person… Read More


Are Nonprofits Driving Gift Officers to Do Fundraising Activities that Don’t Work?

As a gift officer, do you sometimes feel like your administrators and leaders are directing you to perform fundraising activities that don’t actually seem to… Read More


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