Sorry if that sounds like one of those clickbait posts. It’s not clickbait, it’s truth. Really it’s a 13-word sentence that will improve your fundraising. Not only will these 13 words improve your fundraising and development work, they could change your career, your relationships, really your life. And it explains a lot of the craziness …
When I was Executive Director/CEO of a nonprofit, I had the opportunity to make asks face-to-face, eyeball-to-eyeball with donors. I actually made a few six-figure asks. And a boatload of smaller asks. I can tell you in all modesty I was absolutely lousy at it. A miserable failure (as in “not successful” and “feeling lousy” …
This is the story of the how the Chairwoman of the Board found her place serving a thriving ministry and the CEO who was smart enough to let the plot develop. I’ll call the Chairwoman Kim and the ministry “Growing Strong” (not their real names). Let’s begin at the ending. As part of my work, …
I know, I know, that’s so obvious it’s nearly insulting for me to say it. But it’s true. And it’s sad how many times good organizations lose income because they don’t work hard to get the letter opened. The envelope your letter or newsletter arrives in is more important than anything inside it. The reason? …
The Walmart heirs’ net worth exceeds the net worth of the entire population of the city of Phoenix. What? (Don’t go political on me, just breathe, think and keep reading). I suspect that, no matter what you believe philosophically or politically about the Walton family and their fortune, this idea of the size of the …
Wouldn’t it be great if you could know how long the perfect piece of online content should be? What’s the best number of words, or better yet, the perfect number of characters to engage your donors online? You can find experts all over the place that will cite one study or another telling you what’s …
Want to improve your direct mail fundraising? Here’s one easy way. I should say in fairness, this is easy in concept but not easy to do. Ready? Here goes: The best way to improve your direct mail is to get your envelope opened. I can see your eye roll now. “Well, duh, of course if …
Do you struggle to acquire new donors? If you do, you’re not alone. For many, many nonprofits and ministries, it’s a real challenge to acquire new donors. Traditional donor acquisition remains expensive. Plus, traditional direct mail results for donor acquisition aren’t what they used to be in the “good old days” (that’s about 4 years …
Everyone knows about and even some of us use “to do” lists. Today we’re talking about thinking about “stop doing” lists. Or as I sometimes tell clients is the “Scarlett O’Hara swear”. That’s when after further review you solemnly swear that as Scarlett said “As God as my witness, I’ll never do that again.” OK, …
improve fundraising results part 2: filters and boundaries Read More »
You made it through the December madness — Christmas and New Years. Wahoo! Hopefully you’re seeing the results you worked hard for. Even bigger WAHOOS!! But as 2012 is closed out and put to bed, you need to take a few actions to make 2013 even better than 2012. Start by digging through your files …
improve fundraising results part 1: year-end reviews Read More »
As part of our work, I review a ton of development and fundraising messaging. I see one mistake in nearly 100% of the copy, scripts and pitches I review. It’s one mistake that if you can fix it, you’ll see a nice uptick in income. Ready? Well, not so fast. I need to start by …
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