3 Reasons You Should Be Thinking about QCDs (Backed By Data + A Free Guide)
How many decisions do you make each day? A quick google search yields our answer: somewhere near 35,000. That number may seem intimidating, “How can… 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.
Nov
06
2019
Oct
29
2019
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
Oct
25
2019
Dividing the “might consider” stage into two unique consideration stages
Where we were Our Dashboard scoring algorithm grouped two deferred qualification responses (“Not now, but in the future I would definitely be interested” and “Not… Read More
Oct
22
2019
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
Oct
17
2019
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
Oct
15
2019
MarketSmart + The Giving Institute
In case you couldn’t tell from the title of today’s blog post, we have some exciting news to share with you! MarketSmart is the newest… Read More
Oct
02
2019
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
Sep
25
2019
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
Sep
20
2019
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
Sep
13
2019
3 simple steps to break your transactional, spray-and-pray fundraising addiction
Nonprofits tend to get addicted to transactions they generate mostly by aiming marketing toward potential supporters with low-capacity. I call it ‘spray and pray’ marketing… Read More
Sep
05
2019
Brand new digital body language filters
Filter by Digital Body Language Digital body language is integral to understanding how supporters are engaging with your organization online. You can now filter by… Read More
Sep
04
2019
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
Aug
26
2019
Finally, the true cause of high fundraiser turnover!
Recently a lot of people have been writing about the high level of turnover among fundraisers in our field. As reported in The Chronicle of… Read More
Aug
23
2019
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
Aug
20
2019
How to ask for a gift: Do you really have to ask?
At MarketSmart, we don’t close sales and we don’t close deals. When it comes to how to ask for a gift, you’ll see there’s a… Read More
Aug
14
2019
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
Aug
07
2019
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
Aug
05
2019
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
Aug
01
2019
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
Jul
31
2019
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
Jul
29
2019
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
Jul
21
2019
Top 10 Reasons Why Fundraisers Might Be Uncomfortable ‘Making The Ask’
Let me know what you think about my top 10 reasons why some fundraisers might be uncomfortable making the ask: 10. They are in the wrong job and… Read More
Jul
16
2019
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
Jul
10
2019
A digest of last year’s best blog posts (titled ‘The Best Of SmartIdeas’) is now available… for FREE.
If you’ve ever hoped for a digest of my best posts, today is your lucky day! Each year, my staff review the data to determine… 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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