Smartideas

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

Major and Legacy Gift Fundraising Is Changing… Blame Robocalls.

Relationships building is part art, part science. And, as we all know, raising major and legacy gifts is all about building meaningful relationships. Over the… Read More


How to Project Your Planned Gift Potential

“I owe a great deal of thanks to the person who invested in planned giving 15 years ago.” I was sitting in the crowd at… Read More


Donor-advised Funds Are Misunderstood, Bound to Be Regulated, and Not Going Anywhere

“Have you read this one?” “Zach, hold on I didn’t even finish the other articles you sent me yet.” I guess I was being a… Read More


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


MarketSmart’s “How-to” Guide for Donor-Advised Funds (DAFs)

Click here for the free comprehensive guide for donor-advised funds. Trends come and go, but donor-advised funds are forever. I’m not quite sure that’s the… Read More


What Does Thanksgiving Have to Do with Fundraising? A Surprising Amount.

“You can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.” I wasn’t frustrated. If anything, I was disappointed. “How could I forget that quote?”… Read More


5 Online Year-End Fundraising Stats You Can Use to Help Craft Your Campaign

This guest post on year-end fundraising stats is from Nathan Hill at NextAfter. Every development professional understands the importance of year-end fundraising. The key to… Read More


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


How Important Is Training for Fundraisers? Very.

This time of year is filled with tricks and treats. The end of October seemingly always has something in store for us, whether it be… Read More


3 Things You Can Learn From $58B in Donations

If you had $58B, you would be among some interesting company. $58B represents more wealth than Larry Page and Michael Bloomberg, but not enough to… Read More


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


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


How to Improve and Develop Process at Your Nonprofit

Developing process is tricky. In the world of for-profit businesses there are myriad books, webinars, and even conferences you can attend to help you become… Read More


One Simple Tactic You Can Use to Be More Effective at Everything

I wish I didn’t have such a “clickbait” title. Even I’d think twice before reading a blog post that suggests it can make you more… Read More


3 Reasons Why You Should Market Charitable IRA Rollovers (And What They Are)

What would you do with $2.5 trillion? Retire? Buy a beach house? Travel the world? Develop a marketing strategy for Charitable IRA Rollovers? (Probably not… Read More


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


Why You Need Tech-Enabled Donor Discovery

For decades, fundraisers have sought a ‘magic box’ to identify the most ideal donor prospects for outreach, relationship-building, and solicitation. Of course they do. Who… Read More


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


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