Giving is Good
Raising more money isn’t a function of “finding the next, best new idea.” Creating more trust with your alumni base won’t occur because you spent a half day in a brainstorming session to identify how best to communicate with them. Your next campaign won’t be successful because you came up with the most imaginative, viral…
It’s helpful to know why we are reaching out to a donor or prospective donor prior to the call, email, letter, or note. Are we calling to secure a gift commitment? Calling to set up a visit? Calling to invite them to an event? Calling as a follow-up to a past visit? Or, are we…
Easily, one of the most unhelpful questions to ask someone in development, especially during a position interview. In many instances: The money received today was actually raised months, years, even decades ago; Even if the money received today was raised today, there were, most likely, other people and diverse motivations encouraging the donor to give;…
Hope gets a bad wrap. It’s viewed as tentative. Easy. Even foolish. Anyone can hope. To be viewed as strategic or consequential, we are told to: create written plans with measurable goals, or else we are just wishing; speak of lofty aspirations with timelines, or else we aren’t serious; build gantt charts with individual assignments,…
It’s not about benefits, access, trinkets, or tchotchkes. It’s not even about impact, reports, recognition, or gratitude. It’s about the donor’s feelings. Before deciding to implement any particular donor stewardship activity or initiative, simply ask yourself this question: “If I were the donor on the receiving end of this experience, how would I feel about…
Here are 3 simple advancement resolutions for the New Year, which, if implemented consistently, are guaranteed to make 2024 one of the best years you and your team have experienced. Invite more people. Consistently invite more people to volunteer, to give their advice, to offer their feedback, to visit with you, to attend an event,…
We often view generosity as an ideal human quality – a virtue attainable only by a privileged, wealthy few. Being generous is seen as a behavioral exception that people aren’t able to choose until and unless certain advantageous life circumstances coexist. For instance, people will say: “I’d give if I made more money,” or “I’ll…
The word, ‘fundraising,’ conjures up so many different definitions and understandings that I have grown fond of asking people what they mean when they use it. For instance, ‘fundraising,’ can mean broadening the base of support, or inviting more people to give, or getting more people to participate on a giving day, or implementing a…
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 I memorized that verse as a child in Sunday School but never paid much attention to the lead-in phrase: “For God so loved the world that he…
Recently during a nonprofit board meeting, a board member asked the following questions and received the following responses from the advancement team members: Q: Won’t asking for major gifts over the next 3 years hurt our annual giving results? A: There is no evidence that will occur. We will be asking everyone to make or…