Charity Navigator just released the results of a year-end giving survey of donors to 101 charities. The survey found that the majority of donors expect to give at the same...
18 Strategies to Maximize Year-End Giving
Focus on the top 15 – 30 donors who haven’t made a gift yet this year. Get your Executive Director, Board Chair and senior development staff out to meet with...
6 questions that can improve your nonprofit copy.
If you want to write better nonprofit copy (whether for direct mail, newsletters, annual reports, etc.), make sure you're answering these six questions: 1. Does my copy speak to the...
Want to raise more money? Learn to play nice together!
Do you remember when you were 7, and that kid next door had all the cool toys? You so desperately wanted to play with them, but he wouldn’t let you. ...
What do Unicorns, Loch Ness and Big Foot have to do with your fundraising?
So what exactly do Unicorns, Loch Ness and Big Foot have to do with your fundraising, huh? The answer? Well, they're just as mythical as the following 6 assumptions you and...
Are you soliciting minor gifts from MAJOR donors?
One key way to maximize Long-Term Donor Value in your direct response program is to ensure that each time you make an ask, you're asking every donor for the most...
Key Metrics for Donor Acquisition
What are the key metrics you track in your donor acquisition efforts? Do you monitor response rate, average gift and total income generated? Those are pretty standard, and are probably...
Insights from Russ Reid’s 2011 Development Conference
It's just after 8:00 a.m., and I'm 30,000 feet over Los Angeles right now, headed home from the 21st Annual Leadership and Development conference put on by Russ Reid. What...
3 Keys to Successful Direct Mail Fundraising
There are dozens of articles and blog posts that discuss how to write a successful fundraising letter. And many of them contain pretty solid recommendations. But the success of your...
Direct Mail: Testing 1,2,3
Does your nonprofit organization have a direct mail fundraising program? Are you testing consistently in your program? If you're like a lot of organizations, you might not be sure when...