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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.

Last week a nonprofit fundraiser said to me, “World Vision can afford to spend so much money to track each child because World Vision is huge and has a lot of money.”

This is almost exactly backwards.

In reality, World Vision is huge and has a lot of money because they spent the money to track each child and report back to donors on what their gifts accomplished.

Donors love to know what their gifts accomplished.  And you don’t need the child sponsorship model to take advantage of that.  Simply tell donors stories about individual lives that were changed by your organization, describe how their life is better than it was before, and then give the credit for the change to the donor.  Your donors will love it — and they will be far more likely to give additional gifts to your organization.

Pro Tip: when you do this, tell the donors what they did, not what your organization did.

If you’ve been following this blog and our work these past few years, you know how important it is to not only Ask your donors for a financial gift, but to Thank them for the gift and to Report back to them the amazing things that have happened because they gave the gift.

We have found that the best platform for delivering your donor Report is via your newsletter.  If that’s the case, then you are probably wondering what ingredients are needed to make your newsletters great.  It’s your lucky day.  See the answers to this question below.

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.