Fundraising
How to Build a Nonprofit Board That Can Raise Money
The biggest fundraising problem facing smaller nonprofit organizations is board makeup. An organization’s board is its top level constituency—its first circle of community. A nonprofit’s community is comprised of concentric circles. Like the rings that ripple outward...
We Call It Development But What Is It Really
When setting up a new development shop or restructuring an existing one, the last thing you should be worrying about is—well—development! The modern development department succeeds not because an organization has had an epiphany about the need to raise money, but...
What’s the Real Cost of a Fundraising Opportunity?
Every fundraising opportunity has three categories of costs. One is obvious, the second is obscured by the opportunity itself, and the third is investment inherent in the structure of an organization. The first is always considered when deciding whether to pursue an...
Holiday Giving: Make It Bigger and Better Next Year
As we enter the final days of the Holiday giving season, a question occurs to me. It's one all nonprofit development officers who expected this season to yield increased giving over last should ask themselves: Was I prepared? Come January it’s tempting to sit back and...
Make Your Mission Statement a Fundraising Tool
A nonprofit organization’s mission statement should be its principal case for support—the main reason why anybody should ever consider donating to the organization. Every other statement a nonprofit makes about its good works past, present, or future should derive...
Building a Small-Gifts Campaign Landing Page
Website pages are an important part of any fundraising campaign. When the fundraising effort is made online only, the online campaign landing page (OCLP) can be the difference maker. It can speed or impede the giving process. As things stand now all online fundraising...
Single Women Fundraising Sweet Spot
Nonprofits should reach out and develop a base of support among single women, and a social-media strategy should be an important part of that effort. The evidence for both the importance of unmarried women as donors and social media as a key way to interact with them...
How Long Should Donors Have to Fulfill Fundraising Pledges?
In my hands is a slick, well done brochure for a capital campaign. The nonprofit organization that has produced it wants to build a new $6.5 million facility. Dates are given for ground breaking, commencement of construction, building completion, and dedication of the...
Should an Organization Have a Formal Gift-Acceptance Policy?
I am often asked—and it is a recurring topic in fund-raising forums—about whether non-profits should have a formal gift-acceptance policy. My questioners aren't just concerned about the rare donation that may come with a tinge of doubt about the donor or a level of...
Supporting Organizations May Be theFundraising Answer If and Only If…
There are members of the boards of trustees of nonprofit organizations who would like to lessen, even eliminate, the fundraising responsibility that comes with their position. Doing so is not wise, but that has not stopped some boards from establishing other bodies...