The Most Important Lessons Learned by Retail Clothes Stores: With Obvious Parallels to Fundraising
If customers don’t see themselves in what you offer, they won’t come in the store. Those that come in are…
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6 Things Your Donors Don’t Care About (That You Assumed They Did)
This news can be shocking to hear and might even make some fundraisers and nonprofit administrators fall out of their…
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How to Lower the ‘Cost’ of Philanthropy So Your Supporters Donate Major Gifts of Assets
In fundraising, a gift results when motivation overcomes cost. Increasing motivation helps. So does lowering cost. These make the gift easier. But sometimes, these…
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Don’t get fooled by metrics without context
No one cares how much money you’ve raised. Displaying how much money you’ve raised on your website, on your LinkedIn,…
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3 Ways You Can Alter Your Perspective and Approach Toward Wealthy Donors So You Raise More Money
In my previous article, which you can read here, I outlined three challenges wealthy people face when they start exploring…
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How To Use Numbers To Inspire More Giving (and How You Should NOT Use Them)
Numbers For nonprofit managers, numbers are important. Numbers define success or failure. Numbers keep the lights on or off. Numbers…
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Philanthropy happens in person, not at your computer
When getting started in Major Gifts, don’t be ashamed of starting small. When I first started as a Development Officer…
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How to develop a ‘character’ in your fundraising stories in 3 steps — according to Dr. Russell James
At the heart of philanthropy is story. Story starts with character. Without a relatable character, the fundraising story is dead.…
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“We need new donors!”
I hear this so frequently from organizations that are not hitting their revenue goals. Before running out to get new…
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5 Strategies for Turning Smaller Major Gifts into Larger Ones
What’s the only thing better in fundraising than a major gift? A bigger major gift. If you’ve been reading this…
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4 big ideas Dr. Russell James got from scanning donor brains with neuroimaging equipment
Philanthropy originates in story. In the earliest foundations of human social cooperation, story is at the center.[1] In empathy development…
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Keep calling!
It took me 16 contacts over a 12-month period to get a visit scheduled with one couple. They then went…
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How the Most Successful Fundraisers Use Stories to Inspire and Motivate Donors to Give
This is the fifth and final post that summarizes a series that tackles why storytelling doesn’t work on its own…
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Finally, the story behind Dr. Russell James’ research on fundraising stories
My journey My career has always focused on charitable giving. This was true in my practice experience, my research, and…
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Why Listening and Investigating Matter So Much for Funding Your Mission
You might want to check out the first post in this series before reading this one. In that post, I…
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Why Stories Matter in Fundraising
In my previous article, I explained what fundraisers get wrong about storytelling. Mostly they tend to think stories about what…
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4 Reasons Why Fundraisers Think Storytelling Matters
In case you missed my last post… I wrote about my unease with the storytelling surge in our sector. It…
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What Everyone Gets Wrong About Storytelling in Fundraising
First, the surge in storytelling. Five or ten years ago, it seemed like everyone in fundraising suddenly started talking about…
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“Sales and Major Gift Fundraising are NOTHING alike!”
I say BS. I’ve encountered several people who believe this, and I don’t understand why they teach it to new…
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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…
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Five ways Dr. Russell James recommends you reduce the cost of giving so your supporters feel good and give more
First: when we talk about cost, we’re not talking about fundraising expenses. That’s not what this article is about. Rather,…
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Why wealthy people care about cost even when it comes to philanthropy
I’ve said it before. Fundraising is all about making sure your supporters feel good. Of course, that’s easier said than…
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Top 3 reasons why major gift or legacy gift officers don’t have enough meetings with donors
I hear a lot of people complaining about gift officers not meeting with enough donors. Usually, these complaints come from…
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At last, the one big thing every fundraiser needs to know to be successful
After more than a quarter century as a fundraiser and a professor focused on fundraising research, theories, data, and experiments,…
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