Mary Mcahalane's family recently made what was for them a large gift to a national charity. The response was underwhelming, and that’s being kind. An 8.5 x 14 sheet of paper, with the bottom being a tear-off, generic response form. The thank you letter – such as it was – consisted of 4 short paragraphs. … Continue reading When you’re too big to succeed
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Development Content: Five ways to reframe your donor stories
Higher education and nonprofit communications teams tend to turn their noses up at donor profiles. Their reaction isn’t unfounded; college alumni magazine readership surveys, for one, consistently show that donor profiles and gift announcements rank last in interest among types of content in these publications. After working for more than a decade on both sides … Continue reading How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Development Content: Five ways to reframe your donor stories
The Science Behind What Motivates People To Donate To Nonprofits
There is no algorithm for human behaviour. To truly understand your donors, you need to take a cue from science and their findings. First, the good news: Charitable giving to nonprofits is contagious and elevating. Most people assume that generosity involves sacrifice: We are giving something up so someone else can have more. But this … Continue reading The Science Behind What Motivates People To Donate To Nonprofits
7 Powerful Public Speaking Tips From One of the Most-Watched TED Talks Speakers
You'd never know it, but Simon Sinek is naturally shy and doesn't like speaking to crowds. At parties, he says he hides alone in the corner or doesn't even show up in the first place. He prefers the latter. Yet, with some 22 million video views under his belt, the optimistic ethnographer also happens to … Continue reading 7 Powerful Public Speaking Tips From One of the Most-Watched TED Talks Speakers
Does your thank you letter really matter?
Most donors don’t care much about how they’re thanked. That’s not because it doesn’t matter, but because most donors are kind and generous people who just want to be helpful. Let’s take a small step back and consider how donors think about charities. Suppose you just received a gift from a new donor. You might … Continue reading Does your thank you letter really matter?
15 Most Valuable Emotional Intelligence TED Talks on Youtube
Emotional intelligence gets a lot of attention in the field of leadership research, and it is drawing increasing attention from many other fields as well. By increasing empathy and compassion through accurate awareness and acceptance of emotions, real widespread change can be ignited. Daniel Goleman wrote the book Emotional Intelligence and his personal “awakening” into … Continue reading 15 Most Valuable Emotional Intelligence TED Talks on Youtube
Educational fundraising: how to structure your Regular Giving year
Whether you are working for a school, university, college or are outside the world of education: when creating a Regular Giving programme, there tend to be a number of pillars. Telephone campaigns, mass mail appeals and more bespoke approaches usually end up being core parts of your programme. Of course this depends on the data … Continue reading Educational fundraising: how to structure your Regular Giving year
How to remember names – every single time!
You’re out making waves in the world: networking with potential clients, donors, business partners, or simply meeting new friends. Nothing makes a person feel valued like you remembering their name. But there’s one problem: just how are you supposed to remember all those names and faces!? Could there really be a version of ‘Future You’ … Continue reading How to remember names – every single time!
Successful Legacy Fundraising | 12 In-depth Insights and Tips
Did you know that legacy fundraising produces the most ROI (return on investment) of any fundraising activity? Stephen Pidgeon states in his book How To Love Your Donors to Death that the average amount of a bequest in the US is about $37,000. Compare that to the average major gift of $5,000. With that kind … Continue reading Successful Legacy Fundraising | 12 In-depth Insights and Tips
How to guide your audience to support your mission
Wouldn’t it be amazing if you could count on a certain percentage of people in your email list to donate to your organization, and a certain percentage of those donors to become passionate, sustaining members or even board members? Just like traveling through a forest, a guide can show your audience how to move on … Continue reading How to guide your audience to support your mission
Propper Fundraising 