Blog Profile / A Small Change
| URL : | http://www.asmallchange.net/ | |
|---|---|---|
| Filed Under: | NGOs & Nonprofits / Fundraising | |
| Posts on Regator: | 34 | |
| Posts / Week: | 0.3 | |
| Archived Since: | May 16, 2011 | |
Blog Post Archive
Campaign Volunteer Recruitment
Is it better to commit a campaign commmittee member to giving and a job description or engage them slowly? The simple answer is yes. If you have volunteers that you can go to and ask to get heavily involved in campaign fundraising, it is always prefered to set high expectations from the start. However, most [...]
An Ask is An Ask
You may have heard a guideline, “ask for three times what you’d like a donor to give.” This is a mantra that’s often used as a technique to get a stretch gift. That guideline is a very poor rule of thumb. A good ask is one the donor feels they could stretch to make but [...]
It’s All Greek to Me
I recently joined a committee that funds social services projects in the city in which I live. At one of our meetings the committee was discussing setting our funding guidelines. I’ve been a part of the grant writing process for many years and have seen the result of some of the stranger and more involved [...]
Fundraising is Not a Narcotic
Over the last few months I have been secretly peddling drugs. My blog was hacked and, unknown to me, written into the metadata was advertising for a narcotic. I’m very sorry that I did not catch it sooner. I deleted my site and reposted everything and have solved the problem. I was thinking about what [...]
Don’t Forget Your $1,000 Gifts
Every organization understands the value of their very top 20 donors. It is easy to see the importance of a $10,000 annual donor. Many organizations have a cut-off as to when the “major gift” starts; often times this is $1,000. Don’t forget the value of those donors that are right at and right before that [...]Show More Summary
Elusive Prospects
We all have those prospects which we can never get on the phone. I had a great question in my post, This Thing Called Follow-up, and I wanted to provide a bit more of a comprehensive response. It is almost always difficult to connect with a new prospect as nobody likes to receive a phone [...]Show More Summary
Take Initiative
I am not a particularly brilliant or innovative person nor am I fabulously talented or charismatic. Any success that I have had I’d contribute to a God that cares about me, great friends, and initiative. I am baffled by how many people will only do exactly what they are told or asked to do and [...]Show More Summary
The Long Ask
It always baffles me how little time organizations will spend stewarding and cultivating their donors. The less time an organization spends acknowledging and cultivating its donors the fewer donors they will retain. In this kind of an organization their top donors are current board members because that is the only group with which they have [...]Show More Summary
Note to self: This is not a hat in hand.
I have a friend who has recently stepped into a new role as a fundraiser and is struggling. Lots of calls + lots of effort = no new money for his organization. It’s a tired and challenging equation that if we are not careful can erode our posture of passionate advocates for our respective organizations [...]Show More Summary
The Power of One
Every board I’ve worked with has board members who are more involved and board members who are less involved. Some of your board members are doers and others are not. If you have a smaller board of 5 to 10 people, then you probably have a board that is almost full of doers. If you [...]Show More Summary
Getting An “A” In Nonprofit Board Fundraising
I saw this title to a blog recently and thought, “Wow, three words in one sentence that make most board members shudder: Nonprofit – Board – Fundraising.” For far to many board members they’d rather die than be asked to be on the fundraising committee. “Let me help out with program or communications or governance [...]Show More Summary
Open Ended Questions
People like to talk. Generally people would choose a good conversation over a bad conversation anytime. People also like to talk about themselves. If you can find the subject that someone likes to discuss and get them started talking about it, you will find that they start to like you more quickly. Talking about their [...]Show More Summary
Working the Room
A good development officer understands the value of working the room. Whether it is a small house party, a large gala or luncheon, or even just a tour it is important to make a special connection with your guests. Everyone has a different capacity of how many new people they can meet at one time. [...]Show More Summary
How to Maximize the Revenue from Your Next E-Appeal
As more and more non-profits have dipped their toes into e-fundraising, whether through e-mail, social media, or on their websites, many are wondering how to maximize the revenue they receive from these efforts. E-fundraising isn’t the same as direct mail fundraising, though there are some similarities: you have to make it emotional; you have to [...]Show More Summary
You Have Influence
Everyone has influence of some kind whether it is over your friends and family or over business and community leaders. The longer you work in your community the more people that you have an opportunity to meet and get to know. As you begin to build your reputation and build your relationship with these people, [...]Show More Summary
Constituencies
According to Giving USA in 2010, more than $290 billion was given of that 73% or $211 billion came from individuals and only 5% came from businesses. It constantly surprises me how much time organizations spend with grants and businesses when there is so much more money in individual giving. As you can see from [...]Show More Summary
Sponsored Post: Online Fundraising Benefits
“With the help of our online software solutions, many of our customers have quadrupled the amount of funds raised in previous years.” DoJiggy Sales If you haven’t done so already, now is the time to consider taking your fundraising campaign online. Online fundraising provides an opportunity for nonprofits to spread greater awareness for their cause, [...]Show More Summary
A List of Soft Touches
My last post featured the importance of soft touches over the course of a year in building a relationship with your donors. Here are a few examples of the kinds of touch points that you can use as a great way to build relationships. Send a card on your donor’s birthday and have everyone in [...]Show More Summary
Soft Touches
Most people do not like being asked to give money. Donors do not often look forward to the solicitation or asking experience. Many organizations don’t talk to their donors at all or the only time they talk with them is when they ask for a contribution. This kind of action is what makes people dislike [...]Show More Summary
Fundraising in World of Abundance
When it comes to fundraising, there are two basic types of people in the world: There are those who see the world as a place of great scarcity, where a limited amount of money and resources are fought over, where one person competes against another for a dollar from a donor or an hour from [...]Show More Summary