Looking Forward: Major Gifts In The New Year

By Hank Lewis, MA, CFRM on January 7, 2011

Responsible planning, in any economy, involves identifying sources of funding sufficient to ensure continuation/survival of the programs that satisfy the needs of the people and the communities you serve. Ensuring the funding of your programs requires that you minimize the risk of (again?) losing a large percentage of your income. According to “Giving USA 2010,” […]

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Looking Back: Fundraising In The Insecure Economy (2008-10)

By Hank Lewis, MA, CFRM on January 4, 2011

Over the years, the biggest mistake that many non-profits made was believing that Grants from Corporations, Foundations and Government would continue at former levels. Giving by foundations and corporations is dependent upon their available resources, and during the recent “low period” in the stock market their assets shrank dramatically. And, obviously, with shrunken portfolios, they […]

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Testing Email Campaigns

By Rick Christ on December 21, 2010

Never take anyone’s advice on how to run an email campaign (except this advice from me)! Instead, take the good ideas you hear from others and test them within your campaign. Testing online is similar to testing in direct mail (or with your favorite recipe, for that matter). Test one subject line against another, or […]

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Fundraising Via Email: Truth or Hype

By Rick Christ on December 17, 2010

(First in a series on Fundraising & Social Media) There’s no such a thing as an “email fundraising campaign.” “Wait,” you say. You’ve heard of lots of nonprofits that are raising money with email. “How can there be no such thing…?” That’s because a typical email just doesn’t have the technical power to get the […]

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Capital Campaigns #13: Campaign Publicity

By Hank Lewis, MA, CFRM on December 14, 2010

Publicity is an important part of any extended campaign … serving many purposes. • Multiple opportunities to tell how the Project   will benefit the community • Public recognition to the Institutional and   Campaign Leaders, and selected donors • Creating and maintaining community   enthusiasm There must, however, be specific conditions and a strict timetable for the […]

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Capital Campaigns #12: Soliciting the Lowest-Rated Prospects

By Hank Lewis, MA, CFRM on December 10, 2010

The “Lowest-Rated” prospects are those who are left after the (“higher-rated”) prospects from all the other Divisions have been assigned; and, considering that condition, this segment of your constituency should not be solicited until all of the “higher-rated” prospects have been solicited. As noted, these are the prospects for whom you have no idea of […]

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Capital Campaigns #11: The Lower-Rated Prospects

By Hank Lewis, MA, CFRM on December 7, 2010

“Lower-Rated” refers to those prospects whose gifts/commitments will fall outside of the definition of a “major gift.” (See: What is A Major Gift?) That doesn’t mean that the total giving from those prospects would be an insignificant dollar figure … it just means that there’d be a relatively large number of prospects, requiring a large […]

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Capital Campaigns #10: Structuring the Solicitation Process

By Hank Lewis, MA, CFRM on December 3, 2010

There are a number of rules for the solicitation of gifts/commitments to a campaign: A solicitor…   (1) Must make his/her campaign commitment   before s/he can solicit commitments from   others;   (2) With few exceptions, can only ask for commitments equal to or less   than that which s/he has made; and,   (3) Should be the best person […]

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The Role of Grants in the Capital Campaign

By Andrew Grant on November 30, 2010

While most grant maker guidelines — foundation, corporate and certainly government — specifically exclude capital campaigns, there are some few that will consider a proposal requesting campaign support. Applicants need to identify those in their funding source research. The proposal will be a restatement of the case statement and should be formatted according to the […]

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Capital Campaigns #9: Leadership

By Hank Lewis, MA, CFRM on November 23, 2010

Leadership is the key factor in any capital campaign – leadership that energizes the process from its onset. So, to start a campaign, the first donors must be Board Members. These individuals must set an example with their level of giving so they have the credibility/leverage to solicit the other Board Members and so they […]

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