Category: Podcast

Everybody knows that donor-focused fundraising is good. But what is it, actually? Listen to discover a new and more effective way to understand — and create — donor-focused fundraising

Ever been told Stop acquiring new donors until you’ve improved your retention rates? It’s bad advice. We’ll take a close look at the important dynamic between acquisition and retention and show you how to arrive at the right balance for your organization.

For most fundraisers, your donors are a lot older than you think. We’ll look at why this is so and what it means for you: How do you communicate with these people? About what? And in which channels?

Knowing hold old your donors are — and responding appropriately — is the key to success in fundraising. Knowledge is power!

Most fundraisers experience a drop in giving during the summer months. Here are some tips for minimizing the pain by maximizing summertime revenue … and other ways you can profitably use the summer months to improve your fundraising all year ’round.

It’s one of the most common experiences in fundraising. You’ve created a powerful fundraising message. Then you show it to your boss — and she hates it. We can’t ignore bosses (and board members and other authorities) — and they often dislike our best work. Because it’s not aimed at them!

Here’s how to gently make your case with your boss that whether she likes it or not isn’t relevant — and in fact, her dislike is a pretty good indicator that you’ve done it right! Practical steps that will help you put the good stuff out their and raise more money!

Here’s an info-packed interview with the Superb Tom Ahern. We discuss how and why you can raise a lot of money with donor newsletters. Learn what’s working and what’s not, what most often goes wrong in donor newsletters, and what the heck is up with email newsletters? All from Tom’s new book Making Money with Donor Newsletters. This podcast could change your fundraising forever!

There are two fundamentally different approaches fundraisers can take to their donors: One stays in the background and empowers the donor to be the hero. The other stands in front and tells the donor to be a good side-kick — keeping the hero label for himself.

One of these raises a lot more money than the other. Do you know which? And do you know which of them you are?

Your donor gets nothing in return for her donation. Nothing but your communications.

Your communications have a big job to do: To show her something she may have no way of knowing otherwise: What her gift made possible.

That’s how you cross the gap from a donation being a random, one-time event to building a meaningful and mutually beneficial relationship with your donor.

Learn some practical, no-nonsense things you can do in your donor communications that will fill your donors’ hearts and minds with reasons to keep on giving.

Recorded on Friday afternoon, October 23, 2015. Hurricane Patricia was barrelling toward the coast of Mexico, and we didn’t yet know if it was going to be a humanitarian disaster or not. (Thankfully, it wasn’t.)

Some disasters give us advance warning. Others, like earthquakes, don’t. Some disasters get the attention of the whole world. Others are only noted by a local area (like unusually cold weather) or even a neighborhood (the local school burns down).

In this podcast, we look at ways you can be relevant and useful with disaster fundraising. When to do it, when not to, and how you approach a disaster so your donors are moved to help.