Funding for Donor Acquisition & for Donor Research

By Hank Lewis, MA, CFRM on September 16, 2015

As previously noted, Donor Acquisition, requires an investment … often, a significant investment. But with many nonprofits finding finances a little tight, the question often is, “Where do we get the money?” I’ll start by examining the components of a donor acquisition mailing – the package: The carrier envelope, the letter, the return envelope and […]

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A Planning Study Is Research

By Hank Lewis, MA, CFRM on September 9, 2015

In my August 12th posting, I provided a link to a three-part piece on Planning Studies. In that series, I discussed how/why the Planning Study is the best way to determine what programs/activities donors are likely/willing to support, and for identifying which donors will support which program/activity. In a Planning Study you are interviewing people/donors […]

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Donor Research: The Basics

By Hank Lewis, MA, CFRM on August 12, 2015

There are a number of ways to categorize research on (prospective) donors. One of the obvious ways is by whether or not they are current constituents, another is whether they’ve yet been donors to your organization. For the first category, your research would be focused on identifying groups of people whose interests might suggest that […]

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Serious Fundraising is Based on Establishing the Right Relationships

By Hank Lewis, MA, CFRM on August 5, 2015

Last week’s posting noted that (except for the donor acquisition process) you should not be in the business of cold-solicitation, and that your organization should have done some research on your prospective donors. And, btw, even if someone has given previously, s/he is still, for the purposes of this discussion, a prospective donor. That posting […]

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Getting Your (Potential) Donors To Want To Give

By Hank Lewis, MA, CFRM on July 29, 2015

Last week the focus was on learning about and understanding what your constituents and potential donors like about you. Now, assuming that you’ve mastered that aspect of the development process, let’s look at what else you need to know about your potential donors; and, what you would have to do to influence those potential donors. […]

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Do You Know What Your Donors Like About You?

By Hank Lewis, MA, CFRM on July 22, 2015

Fundraising is all about getting your potential donors to want to give to you — if they want to, they will; if they don’t, they won’t !! Too many nonprofit board and staff members don’t understand that little bit of rocket science. Too many board and staff members are focused on “how wonderful the organization […]

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Major Donor Stewardship

By Hank Lewis, MA, CFRM on July 15, 2015

For this discussion, I refer you to one of my earliest postings, What Is A Major Gift? for a definition of that term, and I add one additional criterion … that it is not a one-time gift “Stewardship,” in the context of development/fundraising, is doing what needs to be done to keep donors feeling good […]

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Telephone Solicitation: Some Final Thoughts

By Hank Lewis, MA, CFRM on July 8, 2015

As previously noted, if your phone program is primarily a fundraising solicitation tool, then the goal must be to raise as much money as possible. That happens when all of the elements in a phone program support/enhance each other. We’ve talked about caller recruitment, training, scripting and pre-call mail or email. We’ve also talked about […]

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Telephone Solicitation: Caller Training – The Script

By Hank Lewis, MA, CFRM on July 1, 2015

Our apologies. Circumstances precluded our posting last week … first non-holiday week we’ve missed in five years. We continue, now, with our series on Telephone Solicitation. And, by the way, our use of that term excludes telemarketing, robocalling or whatever you call those intrusive, unwelcome calls that always seem to come at inopportune times. Telephone […]

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Recruiting the Telephone Solicitor

By Hank Lewis, MA, CFRM on June 17, 2015

The key ingredient of an in-house telephone solicitation program is the person making the phone call. [And, btw, with all the (misplaced) emphasis on the use of social media to raise money, keep in mind that the telephone is a “social medium.”] Last week I noted that pre-call mail (snail mail or email) discusses the […]

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