Category Archives: nonprofit
New Year’s Fundraising Resolution: Reconnect with lapsed donors
One way to start 2020 off right is to reactivate lapsed donors. They’re not a lost cause. But you have to be strategic about winning them back. First, realize that they’re not sitting around thinking, “Wow, I haven’t given to … Continue reading
Your year-end appeal: last-minute help, free
It’s time to get your year-end appeal (online and offline) set up, nailed down, and ready to go. If you’ve been putting it off … or if you already have an appeal prepared and want a gut-check before you launch, … Continue reading
Year-end fundraising – what you should be doing now
To raise more money with your year-end appeal, one of the first things to do is to make sure you have a solid offer. The fundraising offer is a statement of what the donor receives in return for giving. It’s … Continue reading
This can torpedo a fundraising appeal
There’s a structure that’s often used for fundraising appeals even though it’s not really all that good for getting donors to give. This post at the Better Fundraising Company blog shows us what this structure is, and it goes something … Continue reading
Another reason to send thank you letters to your donors
When it comes to thanking donors, this is a horror story: A donor writes a check for $50,000, sends it in to the charity, and waits and waits for days and then finally calls the charity to make sure it … Continue reading
When to use a plain envelope in fundraising
In Gulliver’s Travels, our intrepid explorer finds himself in Lilliput, where two factions of Lilliputians are in dispute. On one side are the Big-Endians, who break their boiled eggs at the big end, while on the other side are the … Continue reading
The best reason to ask your donors more often to give
Lots of charities are shy about asking for donations. They don’t want to mail or email too often out of fear of seeming too pushy. And even in their appeals themselves, it seems like they’re trying to work up the … Continue reading
What’s your fundraising war story?
When things go wrong with a fundraising appeal, it can seem like the end when it’s happening to you. But really, sometimes the lessons you learn in the school of hard knocks are the best ones – the ones you … Continue reading
Fundraising: the 2 key “abilities”
Donor retention keeps falling, while donor skepticism keeps rising. So, it’s more important now than ever to connect with donors in a personal way if you expect to engage and keep them. But how? There are two key “abilities” that … Continue reading
How too much collaboration ruins fundraising appeals
There’s this idea that people seem to accept without even thinking about it. It’s the idea that all work is teamwork … that nothing can happen without the involvement of anyone and everyone … that any kind of collaboration is … Continue reading