Tag: Fundraising Tips

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Remember When?

I remember when people were in awe of email.  They loved it.

Until they didn’t.

The convenience –the ability to communicate directly and personally in writing regardless of time zones and free of telephone buzzy signals or answering machines and fax machines—was astounding.

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Advanced Tips For Your Year-End Appeal Letters

Can you imagine how many nonprofit appeal letters I receive after 40 years in fundraising? And yet I still open each one, relish most of them, and occasionally grimace. Here are advanced tips for crafting your year-end appeals that will help you raise more revenue.   1. Is direct mail dead? It most certainly is not. Direct mail is still the workhorse of fundraising. You’ll want to collaborate closely not just with your printer and mail house, but everyone on your team—including your copy editor and graphic designer. What’s a good response rate for direct-mail fundraising? A recent Direct Marketing

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Your Thanksgiving Thank-A-Thon

“If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.” ~Meister Eckhart, (1260 – 1328) Your Thanksgiving Thank-A-Thon is critical to your year-end fundraising drive; but it’s also the penultimate moment for you to express unabashed gratitude to your donors and funders. My blog posts this month have been all about boosting your year-end giving. I’ve already described what’s ahead for year-end giving in 2022; you can read about that here. Last week, I wrote about empowering your board members to take leadership roles in year-end fundraising and recommended that you create

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Tips For Becoming The Best Fundraiser You Can Be

You are the most important aspect of your fundraising program, not the latest software, not the latest research findings, not the latest prospect research tactic. Solely, you. Without you, all the rest is grist for the mill. These tips drawn from my own recent professional development experiences may inspire you. Here goes.: Sometimes you must forget everything and start anew. What worked before may not work now. Ask yourself what would it take to clear the decks and try a brand-new approach? Of course, we don’t want something new just for the novelty of it. We want something new to

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A Lesser-Known View of Wellness

By Michael Taylor, CFRE, CEO Wellness usually focuses on your personal responsibility to stay healthy. There’s a bit of “blame the victim” syndrome in that. I have a different view. You see, my 25 years of fundraising leadership has shown me that 10 key organizational development touchpoints do more to keep you healthy and well than almost anything else! I talked about these 10 touchpoints on a recent webinar, which you can watch at this link. My view is that if you have agreement on these issues, then you have less stress. And when you’re feeling less stress, you can raise

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New ‘Giving USA’ Report Signals Turbulence Ahead for Fundraisers

New ‘Giving USA’ Report Signals Turbulence Ahead for Fundraisers

By Michael Taylor, CFRE, CEO The pre-eminent source of annual data about giving and philanthropy in the United States — Giving USA Foundation — this week released its 2021 report. This year’s edition offers a mixed bag of news for fundraisers and sends a few warning signals about what we can expect in the balance of 2022. But before the warnings, some good news: Charitable giving totaled a near-record $484.9 billion in 2021, which was flat when compared to 2020. That’s considered a win, especially since COVID-19 sparked an 8.1% annual increase in giving in 2020, and many observers feared

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Roe vs Wade

Should Your Fundraising Be Apolitical?

By Michael L. Taylor, CFRE, CFRE, CEO Nonprofits involved with the abortion debate are seeing a fundraising spike because of the recent leak of a draft opinion by the U.S. Supreme Court that would overrule Roe v. Wade. But for nonprofits whose missions are not about reproductive rights, the future of Roe v. Wade is causing intense internal discussions about whether they should take a stand or be apolitical. The topic of abortion stirs strong emotions on both the left and right. As a result, public statements from a nonprofit on the issue are likely to rankle a portion of its

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Discomfort in Fundraising

Three Steps to Manage Uncomfortableness in Fundraising

By Michael L. Taylor, CFRE, CFRE, CEO We try our utmost to avoid it, but feeling uncomfortable is key to fundraising mastery.  In fact, the more advanced fundraising you seek, the more uncomfortable feelings rise. Yet it is an enormous (and lucrative) gift to yourself, and especially to your nonprofit, to work through these initial feelings.  Aversion for being uncomfortable is understandable. Uncomfortable situations trigger feelings of being out of control. Anxiety and fear storm through us and our bodies get tense.   Being uncomfortable goes against our innate desire to feel calm and at peace.   Many fundraisers call me when they

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Write a Superb Case Statement

By Michael L. Taylor, CFRE, CFRE, CEO A superb case statement communicates to the donor why funds are urgently needed and why philanthropic support makes sense.  It’s critical for that to occur on the first page of the case, as this sample does so well, since many people will only read that page. “How can we ever say no?,” the cover page asks. Right from the start the key question is posed and driven home.   When executed well, a case statement inspires your donors to invest in your future — and become ambassadors for your mission and vision.   Most people associate

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