Most nonprofits, like Sweet Briar, do not consider the fact that capital campaigns can hurt your annual fund and general operating budget, especially if annual fund donors are being targeted for a large percentage of the capital gifts. With nearly $200 million raised in Sweet Briar’s case, they learned the hard way that capital campaign donors will rarely give “twice” or release “restrictions” to pay for overhead and operations.
FIT Fundraising Articles
Fundraising Tips and Strategies.
The 5 Biggest Tips for Boosting Donations
Every January I encourage charities to spend more time on practical, actionable events rather than writing beautiful superfluous words about their organization and cause.
The GOP Take Over Lessons for Nonprofits and Charities!
If you cannot change the people you are around… change the people you are around. Sure, it sounds easy, but it is the toughest part of integrating new technology. Some people just will not be able to change or grow.
Holiday Cookies and Your Website Donations
It's that time of year around my home... It starts with pumpkin latte's, morphs to pumpkin bread, rolls over to chocolate oatmeal "no bakes" (they are my favorite) and by the time Thanksgiving arrives we are in full Christmas cookie workshop mode. My dear wife, her...
“New, New” Donors Drive Growth and Revenue
The “New-New” donor is the person who gives in multiple channels to their favorite charities. They give higher average gifts and more frequently.
RFM Plus… The HOT New Way To Create MORE GIFTS!
Overlaying RFM with events at the charity is key. If you had a choice to mail an appeal to a donor who gave six months ago versus a donor who gave a year ago, but who had just volunteered, went on your website and just attended the fundraising banquet. Who would you pick?
Do you have an annual plan for measuring CHANNEL INTEGRATION?
Direct marketing today messages focus on the donors’ data, giving history and areas of interest to tailor communications to each individual or groups of groups who share particular interests. Annual planning for channel integration creates communications to actionable...
The Shinny New Thing in Fundraising… INTEGRATION
Integration is the shinny new thing in fundraising. Integration builds upon the advertising technology pioneered in the 70’s and 80’s we called direct response marketing (DRM). Direct advertising is based upon creating a process to communicate directly with the...
Fundraising Begins with “Your Preacher and Six Pallbearers”…
It begins with the data. I'm often approached by nonprofit leaders with the same question. Leaders of both large and small nonprofit organizations have asked me the same question over and over. The are all looking for a short cut to building their fundraising...
Development Is a TEAM SPORT!
It has been a unique week. Meeting with development professionals is always filled with surprises, but I have to tell you I was floored with the number of development pros trying to do it on their own. I met not one, not two, but three development directors who were...