I'm launching a new series focused on the biggest fundraising mistakes nonprofits make. To kick off this series, I asked my friend Erica Waasdorp, author of Monthly Giving. The Sleeping...
Your donors are tired of being crappily asked
Last month Marc A. Pitman wrote on the myth of donor fatigue. Something Marc said stuck with me, and hit home like a hammer when I got an email solicitation...
Should you include a reply envelope in your thank you letters?
I get this question all the time! And I’m sure there are a lot of people who will disagree with me on this topic. My standard response to development directors...
The danger of nonprofits chasing discounts
A few years ago one of our nonprofit clients fired our firm because they found another fundraising agency that quoted them a cheaper price for their direct mail services. This other...
Fundraising Myth Busters: Hope gets better results than need
Welcome to the seventh and final installment of my Fundraising Myth Busters series. I hope you’ve gleaned some valuable information that you can put to work to raise your organization...
Fundraising Myth Busters: Online-acquired donors are different
Today in the fourth installment of my Fundraising Myth Busters series, we’re going to tackle the belief that you shouldn’t add your online-acquired donors into your other fundraising channels. Hopefully...
Fundraising Myth Busters: Solicitation Frequency
This is installment number three of seven in my series on fundraising myth busters. By now I hope you've had a chance to check out the first post on donor...
Fundraising Myth Busters: Donor Acquisition
This is the first in a series of seven posts focused on busting (or validating) common fundraising myths. Believing you know the truth about anything in fundraising without testing it...
Become a better leader by investing more in your personal relationships
Leading a nonprofit isn’t easy. Neither is successfully running a development department. No matter how hard you work, you never have all the resources you need to accomplish your mission....
We increased our newsletter revenue by 1,000%. Here’s how…
Back in 2009 at Gillette Children’s Hospital Foundation we had a problem. Our newsletter, Momentum, was an institution unto itself. It won multiple communications awards. The staff raved about it....