Your institution has recognition societies, clubs, and circles based on giving levels. You may even have a recognition group based on consecutive year giving. You probably have an annual event or two that recognizes and thanks your donors based on these groups. You also have a strong sense that the “new world order” of communication…
Category: Fundraising
The Volunteer “Voice” of Your Advancement Program
Have you seen the NBC television show, “The Voice“? It’s a singing talent show of sorts with the gimmick of the old “Dating Game” – the judges can’t see the contestants. They can only hear them. The human voice – tone, tenor, quality, pitch, etc. – provides us with numerous cues about the individual. When…
Building A Brand That Encourages Generosity
When people buy products or services, they, in part, are buying a brand. Buying a Mercedes auto? Sure, you are buying high quality engineering – maybe the best. But you also are buying the notion that the car makes you feel “unlike any other.” Buying a iPhone 4s? Sure, you are buying access to your…
3 Opportunities to Get Better At Our Work
Recognizing a need to do professional development better for advancement folk, my colleagues at Gonser Gerber recently launched a new division – the Gonser Gerber Institute. The mission of the Institute is “to make advancement professionals and teams more effective by delivering dynamic and innovative educational content.” The idea for the Institute came about because we were convinced that…
3 Keys To Receiving Ongoing Major Gifts
During campaign years institutions raise more money. The research is clear on this. A campaign focuses an institution and its donors on strategic priorities and gift income goals. During a successful campaign, the case for support is concisely articulated and the institution places an extraordinary level of energy on the discovery, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship…
The Gamification of Giving
Spend time on Facebook each day? Want to help your favorite charity? You can now do both – simultaneously. GamesThatGive (now owned by Facebook software company Vitrue), allows gamers the opportunity to support their favorite charities simply by playing online games. The longer you play, the more money is donated by GamesThatGive. For those who…
3 Simple Ways To Enhance Your Creativity
Advancement work regularly requires our best creativity. Whether we are devising cultivation strategies for key major donor prospects, writing direct response solicitations, or designing case statements and campaign videos, each of us has to engage the most creative elements of ourselves consistently. The problem, though, is that we tend to think of creativity incorrectly. We…
Why Variety Is Not The Spice of Your Case Statement
Gad Saad, in The Consuming Instinct, has penned an interesting and deep read around the notion of biologically-driven choices. He discusses how our biology drives our consumption behaviors in ways far more important than culture or socialization alone can account. I thought about our work as advancement professionals when Gad covered the “variety effect” and…
What You Know Is More Important Than What They Know
Time to make the call on the prospective donors. You know which call it is – it’s the ask. This is big. In fact, it’s the biggest ask you’ve ever made of a prospect. You’ve set up the meeting and a member of your Board will be with you. You’ve created a call script. You’ve…
How Much Klout Do You Have?
Have you stumbled upon Klout.com yet? It’s a quantitative value analysis of your online influence. Every facebook “like,” every tweet, every published blog, every status update, and photo comment adds to your value as an online influencer. A higher score means you have more influence with others in the virtual realm. Recently, I read an…