How Good Email Helps Direct Mail Results

By Rick Christ on March 15, 2011

It wasn’t that long ago that crusty-old-direct-mail-consultants were worried that email would cut into direct mail revenue. Consistent testing and a steady stream of anecdotes indicate that’s just not true. For the last ten years, I’ve been testing direct mail results and the impact of email messages. In one of the simplest and longest-running tests, […]

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Fundraising: If You Don’t Ask, You Don’t Get

By Hank Lewis, MA, CFRM on March 10, 2011

The Fundraising Appeal A few months ago, a NYTimes article suggested that donors are being highly selective in deciding whose name goes on the payee line of their checks. Non-Profit Organizations, therefore, must do all they can to get donors to want to give to them. At most times, especially in an economically “troubled climate,” […]

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Searching for Federal Government Grants

By Jayme Sokolow on March 7, 2011

The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance … (www.CFDA.gov) that describes over 500 grant programs (awarding hundreds of billions of dollars), is a great place to get an overview of every grant program administered by the federal government. The CFDA provides a full listing of 2,110 federal programs available to state and local governments, Indian tribal […]

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What Is A Development Plan

By Hank Lewis, MA, CFRM on March 3, 2011

Someone asked, recently, about putting together a “fundraising plan.” My response was about creating a “Development Plan.” Where the latter has its focus on the relationships between the organization and its constituents/donors that can result in contributed income, the former just focuses on the dollars. And, when just focusing on dollars is sometimes OK for […]

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Fundraising Ethics – Clarifying The Language

By Hank Lewis, MA, CFRM on March 1, 2011

I respond to Michael (his comment is below) that we don’t disagree, that it’s just a difference in vocabulary. My reference to nonprofits being public institutions is a matter of perspective, not legal language. Nonprofits are required/supposed to serve the needs of the “community,” and I write from the perspective of the “community’s” right to […]

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Fundraising Ethics

By Hank Lewis, MA, CFRM on March 1, 2011

The question was raised, recently, why the (ManagementHelp.Org) Library doesn’t have anything about fundraising ethics, so Carter McNamara added a subtopic heading under Fundraising, and sort of suggested that it would be a good idea to address the issue in this blog. This is, therefore, the first (hopefully) of a number of postings on Fundraising […]

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Major Donor on The Board

By Hank Lewis, MA, CFRM on February 24, 2011

Got an email, not long ago, asking: “Is there any danger with placing a major donor on the Board of a nonprofit organization?” I responded that: Ideally, a non-profit organization will have a list of criteria for prospective Board Members and a formal procedure for (identifying and) recruiting new Board Members — meaning that no […]

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Using Gift Clubs to Encourage Major Gifts

By Hank Lewis, MA, CFRM on February 21, 2011

The club “leader” sets the pace, and invites others to join his/her Club – with an understanding that they are expected to give at a specific (major gift) level, and participate in specific activities. Not everyone who gives at that (specific) level is invited to be a club member … we are talking about club […]

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Gift Clubs: What They Are … And Aren’t

By Hank Lewis, MA, CFRM on February 17, 2011

It has become common for nonprofit organizations to publish listings of donors arranged by the sizes/ranges of their gifts. In the vast majority of cases, those gift range categories are often known, erroneously, as “gift clubs.” This is a very popular, simple process. It is popular because it is easy to implement and doesn’t take […]

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The Best Week Of The Year

By Rick Christ on February 14, 2011

I received over 100 email messages from nonprofits in the last week of 2010. There’s a good reason for that: it’s the best week of the year for online fundraising. I know, I sound like those billboards that say “You missed Ma’s Diner! Turn Back at Next Exit!” You can’t go back to December, but […]

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