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You’ve heard of marketing automation, and you’ve likely heard of fundraising automation too. And if you’re like many nonprofits, you might even believe you’re using… Read More
The metrics that will actually lead to improved fundraising performance will not be about tasking fundraisers but about creating the conditions that allow fundraisers to… Read More
Low-Dollar vs. Major Gifts Fundraising – Strategy Over Amounts In the nonprofit world, leaders, board members, and staff are faced with a unique balancing act…. Read More
“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
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 is to philanthropy itself. All ethical fundraisers and fundraising organizations must commit themselves, at a bare minimum, to do no harm… Read More
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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