April 23:
Keeping Your Bucket Full … With Direct Mail
by Jonathan Howard
The national average rate of donor retention (that’s the number of donors who gave in two consecutive 12-month periods) is a horrendous 35 percent.
April 23:
Events In Private Homes: Part II
by Hank Lewis
Education, Cultivation & Stewardship – What can/should happen at an event in someone’s home.
April 30:
Who Are Your Planned Gift Prospects? – Part I
by John Elbare
Planned giving works best when you target your efforts toward a segment of donors who are most inclined to consider a planned gift. Avoid the common misperception that planned giving is mostly for wealthy donors.
April 30:
Events In Private Homes: Part III
by Hank Lewis
Asking attendees to write a check … at an event in someone’s home. Should you or shouldn’t you ?? It all depends!!
May 7:
Evaluating The Chief Development Officer – Part One of Three
by Tony Poderis>
Will you to say “Nice job,” or “You are not up to what we expected,” or worse – “Your services are no longer needed here?”
May 7:
The New Donor’s Journey
by Jonathan Howard
Direct mail is old-fashioned. And that’s a good thing. What works by mail has been time-tested and documented in countless books and blogs over many decades.
May 14:
Preserve Institutional Knowledge to Ensure Better Proposals
by Jayme Sokolow
… although organizations “spend a lot of time and resources developing knowledge and capacity . . . most of it resides in the heads, hands, and hearts of individual managers and functional experts.”
May 14:
Evaluating The Chief Development Officer – Part Two of Three
by Tony Poderis>
There are many factors that can impact the success of a development program, and, thereby, affect how the CDO’s performance is perceived.
May 21:
The CFC and Non-Profit Sustainability – Part I
by Bill Huddleston
a non-profit’s “financial sustainability and programmatic sustainability cannot be separated.
May 21:
Evaluating The Chief Development Officer – Part Three of Three
by Tony Poderis
Not all of a CDO’s responsibilities are directly related to fundraising … another reason why his/her performance should not be evaluated based just on dollars-raised.
May 28:
Who Are Your Planned Gift Prospects? – Part II
by John Elbare
The one thing we know for sure about donor behavior is that most planned gifts come from loyal donors. They are already sold on your mission, they believe in your cause, and they probably would like to do more to help….
May 28:
The CFC and Non-Profit Sustainability – Part II
by Bill Huddleston
You may be familiar with the concept of the fundraising pyramid, but one problem with much of the fundraising literature is that there’s often a built-in presumption that the pyramid has already been built.
June 4:
Successful Proposals Find Common Ground with Funders
by Jayme Sokolow
… selling and fundraising are about finding common ground. Raising money via grant proposals is pretty much always about finding common ground with your funders.
June 4:
The CFC and Non-Profit Sustainability – Part III
by Bill Huddleston
Another aspect of the CFC that is often not recognized, because all the results are reported annually, is that many CFC donors are multi-year donors, giving for five, ten and twenty years during their Federal career.
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Hank Lewis with Development Consultant Associates has over thirty years as a fundraising consultant and is a specialist in Board and Leadership Development, Capital Campaign, Bequest Program and Major Gifts.