16 Simple Things Your Best Donors Want
Here’s my list of essential major donor needs that you must aim to fulfill: Your best donors want you to do the important work they… Read More
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Helping you qualify, cultivate and prioritize major donors and legacy supporters so you can have fun closing more gifts more efficiently.
Sep
23
2021
Sep
21
2021
Are you ready for the 24/7 donor?
Accenture – the world’s largest consulting firm – says that we’re in the era of the “nonstop consumer”. According to their website, “A customer’s path… Read More
Sep
17
2021
Top 10 Reasons Why Gift Officers Won’t Make Outbound Calls to Donors
The reasons why fundraisers won’t make outbound calls to donors are because they are: FEARFUL: They fear rejection. CONFUSED: They don’t know what to say…. Read More
Sep
15
2021
The 8 core components of engagement fundraising and why you desperately need them
Most fundraising is based on what I call “single shot” strategies. For instance, it’s an event, gala or golf outing. Or, perhaps it’s a mailing,… Read More
Sep
10
2021
Engagement Fundraising in 7 simple bullet-points
Focus- Focus your marketing (especially your expensive marketing like face-to-face meetings) on people who have a lot of money Generate leads- Generate highly-qualified leads among… Read More
Sep
08
2021
Why you should worry less about reducing overhead and more about delivering value
Fundraisers and donors are in a pickle. They have been unfairly subjected to a broken system for decades. It isn’t their fault, but it is… Read More
Sep
03
2021
Why most of your marketing should appeal to donors in the WHY stage of the consideration continuum
Instinct. When I first started helping nonprofits raise major gifts for less, I instinctively knew that the traditional planned giving web content most vendors supplied… Read More
Sep
01
2021
Why your donor prospects lie to you and won’t accept your outreach
If you’re like me, you hate being sold. You can sense when a salesperson is trying to get you to do something you’re not quite… Read More
Aug
27
2021
Is your annual fund tail wagging your major gift dog?
I always find it stupefying when a major gifts team tells me they need to get permission from the direct marketing team or higher up to… Read More
Aug
25
2021
3 big reasons why nobody talks about the single most important fundraising tactic on earth
Let’s jump right in…. The single most important fundraising tactic on earth is appointment setting. There! I said it! Don’t believe me? The late Jerold Panas… Read More
Aug
20
2021
Why Response Rates Don’t Matter
It always frustrates me to hear fundraisers or their consultants concern themselves with vanity metrics like response rates for lead generation efforts. Honestly, I’m tired… Read More
Aug
18
2021
Apple will be changing how their products report your email marketing metrics… but does it matter?
Apple will be driving change yet again. Yep! You know Apple. In addition to all the wonderful products they create, there’s one thing they also… Read More
Aug
13
2021
Donor target ask amounts offend me
I keep seeing software or wealth screening companies providing fundraisers with target ask amounts. I don’t get it. How on earth can a software provider… Read More
Aug
11
2021
The difference between wealth screening and wealth appending
First, wealth screening. Over the past 10 to 20 years, wealth screening has become a common practice for fundraising shops. But staff should always remember… Read More
Aug
06
2021
10 reasons why donors and fundraisers like Rollover IRA giving
We’re getting pretty good at marketing rollover IRAs here at MarketSmart. Here are some of the things we’ve learned as we’ve crafted a value proposition… Read More
Aug
04
2021
Stop SPAMMING your supporters with planned giving e-newsletters
Wiz-bang tech? I was talking to a fundraiser and he said, “We’ve got this cool system that includes pre-written estate planning e-newsletters I can send to… Read More
Jul
30
2021
Don’t survey your donors unless you have cultivation ready to go
Let’s start at the beginning. Almost 10 years ago, when MarketSmart was a marketing agency for private sector businesses and I first offered to help… Read More
Jul
28
2021
Why you should never get a job and go to work
I taught my kids to avoid using the words job, work and can’t. To me a job is what some people get so they can work to get money; and if they fail to find one, they might say it’s… Read More
Jul
23
2021
Top 2 cringeworthy things some fundraisers say to major donor prospects (and what they might want to say instead)
1. “I’d like to meet you to update you / tell you what we do / tell you what we’ve been doing, etc.” I’ve had… Read More
Jul
19
2021
A powerful new way to deliver value to your future supporters
If you work for a college or university, you already know that many of your donors give because of the experience they had when they attended your institution. For… Read More
Jul
16
2021
7 big reasons why capacity is so hard to uncover (how the rich hide their wealth)
Here’s how the ultra-rich make sure you can’t figure out how much money they really have: They figure out ways to evade taxes entirely They use… Read More
Jul
14
2021
Is a day of reckoning coming for fundraisers and their employers?
Fundraisers like you are in a difficult spot. You’re constantly being asked to raise more money by your board of directors, but you don’t have… Read More
Jul
09
2021
Are you chasing wealthy people or philanthropists?
Wealthy people are not necessarily philanthropists. But philanthropists are usually wealthy. When organizations develop their lists, I think, perhaps, a little too much attention is… Read More
Jul
07
2021
Why your nonprofit’s donor survey could be causing more harm than good
Thinking about sending out a donor survey? If so, be sure to use the survey responses properly so you ‘speak’ personally and relevantly to each… Read More
Get the book!
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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