How COVID Times Provide Unique Opportunities for Fundraising
Asking for Donations, Major Gifts Yes, COVID times are hard for everyone to handle. But don’t despair: We are finding that these times offer some pretty interesting and unique opportunities for fundraising. Unusual times often bring up unusual opportunities…
What’s the Right Time to Ask for a Gift?
Asking for Donations, Major GiftsToday, we want to help you with one of the thorniest questions of major gift fundraising: What's the right time to ask for a gift? When should you ask your donor? We all struggle with this issue. And when we are unsure about timing, we…
The New Three-Part Fundraising Ask for Times of Crisis
Asking for Donations It's time to shape up your fundraising ask. Successful nonprofits are approaching donors differently these days - with a different type of ask. It's much, much more personal, authentic, and quite transparent about money. Unusually so! Here's…
Five Strategies that Will Motivate Donors
Asking for Donations How do you motivate your donors to give? It's a question I get asked a lot. Especially with the numbers of donors in decline, we have to do a better and better job at fundraising. If fewer people are giving, our appeals need to be…
Small Donors are Disappearing . . . and What You Can Do About It
Asking for DonationsOne of the most disturbing trends in fundraising today is that small donors are disappearing. I interviewed Roger Craver of the Agitator/Donor Voice Blog this week. (Roger is one of the direct mail/multi-channel gurus of our field, and I read…
The Asking Conversation: How to Ask for “Permission to Ask”
Asking for Donations, Major Gifts So much of fundraising comes down to the Asking Conversation, doesn’t it? It’s inevitable -- because we are simply in the business of raising money. But asking can be tough: in worst cases – it’s full of fear and trepidation. Other…
Strengthen Your Fundraising Appeal With the “IPM” Formula
Annual Giving, Asking for Donations, Major Gifts Here’s a very smart, efficient way to present your fundraising appeal. It forces you to be crystal clear about the three fundamental parts of any formal Ask: What impact it will make (I) What project it will fund…
Fundraising’s Not About Money (What???)
Asking for DonationsFundraising's not about money - what did I say? What's more - fundraising is NOT about asking, either. Why? Because if you just focus on the money, you'll drive your donors away. In fact, if you make it all about money, you probably…
Major Gift Series #9: Romancing the Ask – 6 Steps To a Perfect Major Gift Ask
Asking for Donations, Capital Campaign, Major Gifts Here's the last in our series of 9 topics to help you raise many generous major gifts for your cause. Fundraising always comes down to asking, doesn’t it? “The Ask” is something we study, prep for, script, dream about, love and sometimes…
Don’t Make These 5 Mistakes In Your Fundraising Appeal Letter
Annual Giving, Asking for Donations, Fundraising Strategy, Marketing & Communications, Year-End Fundraising Campaigns Fundraising appeal letter mistakes - 5 key items to avoid Your year-end appeal letter just might be missing the boat. Here are some common fundraising appeal letter mistakes I see so very often: 1. Your call to action is weak. Lots…
#1 Tip to Create a Donor-Centered Appeal Letter
Asking for Donations, Donor-Centered Fundraising Wish you could have been there: Sue was at her computer, struggling once again. She was trying to get the wording right in her fundraising appeal letter. "Dang, this is so hard," she thought. Trying to make it donor-centered was a serious…
Creating a Donor-Centered Appeal Letter: A Makeover
Annual Giving, Asking for Donations, Donor-Centered Fundraising, Marketing & CommunicationsWant to create a donor-centered appeal letter? It's more difficult than you think, it's not very intuitive. It doesn't come naturally. When we actually sit down to write a letter, our natural inclination is to remind our donor how worthwhile…
What are the 3 Most Boring Words in Fundraising Appeals?
Annual Giving, Asking for DonationsWhat fun! Today I'm ranting a bit about what goes WRONG with so many fundraising appeals. I’m sharing my thoughts on the most overused, most boring and least useful words ever to be used in fundraising appeals. And I want to know YOURS! What…
Six Simple Ways to Help Volunteers Make Successful Asks
Asking for Donations Remember the movie Jerry McGuire? There's a famous line in it where sports agent Jerry Maguire, played by Tom Cruz, says to his player client Rod Tidwell, “Help Me Help You.” This is a guest post by our consultant Dan Bruer -…
5 Tips To Ask Face-to-Face for Big Gifts in 2023
Asking for Donations "What are the best practices in face-to-face asking?" One of our Major Gifts Intensive organizations asked us this question last week. They were ready to dive into person to person Gift Conversations. Today we're sharing a summary of what…
Report: Biggest Challenges to Major Gift Fundraising Success
Asking for Donations, Major Gifts Nonprofits clearly see the potential that major gift fundraising success might offer. Now, we have over 550 nonprofit leaders sharing their personal challenges in major gift fundraising. The floodgates have opened here, folks. Read on for hopes,…