Author: Jim Shapiro

Now is the time to look back over your donor data and identify donors who gave you a gift in 2013 but DID NOT give your organization a gift in 2014. This group of people accounts for your lapsed donors.

Send you lapsed donors a note today to let them know you missed them. Thank them for making a difference in the world in 2013, that you missed them in 2014 and that you’d like to invite them to join the work again in 2015.  Ask them to make a donation today.

A proven way to increase your active donor file is to reactive these lapsed donors. They once believed in your work enough to send you a gift. They made a financial investment. It is your job to remind them of this investment and to encourage them to give again.

Winning, keeping and lifting your donors through the Ask, Thank, Report, Repeat rhythm is your key to raising more money!

Here is a short video we made last fall.  It has to do with asking and asking well.  Watch it and then apply what is taught to your lapsed donor strategy.

There are 3 proven steps to building a fundraising plan and calendar that works. Here they are.

1. Write down everything you did for fundraising in 2014. Write it on one sheet of paper. List your fundraising activities in chronological order. If it fits on one sheet you didn’t do enough fundraising last year.
2. Go through your sheet and grade each fundraising activity. Was it a fundraising success or not? Did it produce the net revenue you needed? Develop a matrix for how you will measure success. How many people attended your special event, how many people responded to your mailings, how many in person donor visits did you make? How much money did you raise from each activity? This becomes your fundraising success dashboard!
3. Based on what you see from your grading and success evaluation, you can easily see what you should do more of in 2015 and what you should do less of or remove from your fundraising plan. You are looking at your 2015 fundraising plan!

To help you build your 2015 fundraising plan, we created a 10-minute video that outlines this process and much more! Watch it here.

You hear me talk about Ask, Thank, Report, Repeat all the time.  It is a simple, donor development rhythm that will raise your organization a ton of money.  January is the month you should take the time to create your 2015 fundraising plan.  This means you should look at what you did in 2014 and repeat what worked in 2015.

To help you understand this process and thinking I made this short video with Steven Screen.   Watch it.  Learn from it.  Apply it.  You will raise more money in 2015!

I am a big fan of Jeff Brooks from TrueSense Marketing. His blog is full of great resources. He also co-hosts the Fundraising is Beautiful podcast my business partner Steven Screen. These guys really know their stuff.

Recently, Jeff posted the following blog article.  It’s worth reading.  My takeaways from this article are pretty simple.

• Know what needs to get done.
• Take on easy, simple, small tasks so you can experience some success.
• Get some sleep. Tomorrow will come.
• Enjoy the journey.  Life is too short to worry!

When it comes to fundraising, I know we can become overwhelmed with all that needs to be accomplished during the day.  The best thing to do is create a plan, work the plan and adjust the plan as needed.  Now is the time to do just that for 2015.  Learn from 2014 and plan for 2015.

Do this, apply the thinking in Jeff’s blog, apply my simple reminders and go get’r done!

It is important to have great thank you letters if you are going to leverage the power of Ask, Thank, Report, Repeat.  We recently reviewed a thank you letter for one of our clients.  Here’s a short summary of what it takes to write great thank you letters.

• Acknowledge the donor’s gift (and amount) in the first sentence or first paragraph.
• Shower the donor in gratitude.
• Tell the donor what their gift is going to do (and what their previous gifts have done). Give them credit for these things (as opposed to thanking them for their partnership in doing them).
• Thank the donor profusely and with emotion.

Now you know what it takes to write great thank you letters.  Go for it.  Give it a try next time you are thanking a donor for their gift.

Today is the day that the real fun begins. December 1st represents the start of the most fruitful fundraising time of year. If you haven’t already planned out your fundraising calendar for this month, it isn’t too late. Here’s what you need to ASAP.

1. Write and send an appeal letter today! Keep it simple. Ask your donors to make a gift today.
2. Makeover your website or at least take over the main landing page. Donors are going to your site to make a gift. Make it easy for them to find your giving page. Organizations that really understand the importance of this have made over their entire website to be all about giving. Take a look at this site from Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission. Wow! They get it. http://www.ugm.org.
3. Prepare your year-end emails right now!  Send these emails out the last few days of December.  The most fruitful time to send an email is December 31st between 10AM – 1PM.  Make your emails short and simple.

Watch this blog for more year-end fundraising tips.  This is the season for giving, so get out their and ask your donors to make a gift!

September is here and December is right around the corner.  What are you doing to maximize the most fruitful time of the fundraising year?  Here are a few pointers.

1. Thank your donors now!  Send them a note.  Give them a call.  Thank them for making the world a better place because they made a donation to your cause earlier this year.
2. Plan your year-end appeals now!  December will be here before you know it.  Now is the time to plan, write and produce your year-end fundraising appeals.  Direct mail, major donor proposals, special event requests.  Don’t wait until the last minute.
3. Learn from others.  Make five $10 donations to different organizations and see first hand how they thank and report back to you.  Learn from the big organizations that have spent millions of dollars testing their donor development.  It’s the best $50 you could spend!

Make the most of every day.  It will be December 31st before you know it!

I came across this TED Talk while preparing to speak to a group of 16-21 year olds that come from families with wealth.  I’ve always supported the thinking that donors are healthier, wealthier and happier because they are charitable.  This talk supports this thinking.  Enjoy.  Click here to see the video.

Now you can learn from the experts on topics like fundraising, storytelling, marketing, finance and capital campaigns.

The Better Nonprofit Conference is a FREE, on-demand conference experience just for you!  Listen in as a panel of experts share their best-practices for fundraising, marketing, storytelling, finance, capital projects and much more!

This conference was designed with you in mind.  I know you are busy – so you may listen to the online conference anytime.  It’s on-demand.  The experts are waiting to share their advice and insights with you.

The Better Nonprofit Conference is perfect for nonprofit leaders, managers, marketing directors, fundraising professionals, board members and CEO’s.

Register today.  It’s free.  Visit www.thebetternonprofitconference.com.

P.S.  Panel experts include Chris Davenport (501 Videos), Jeff Brooks (True Sense Marketing) Sarah McCrum Voelzke (Pacific Continental Bank), Phil Frisk (PWF Architecture), Ryan Macintosh (Ryan General Contractors), Justin Blaney (Inkless), Joe Churpek (AnalyticalOnes), Steven Screen (TBFC), Art Zylstra (B2B CFO), Don Burke (180 Consulting), and Kevin Urie (47Harmonic).  Sponsors include Snap-Raise andSozo Wines.