Category: Uncategorized

Major Donor Fundraising: Capital Campaign Fundraising Success

Jim Shapiro  |  Major Donor Fundraising, Uncategorized
Major Donor Fundraising

At some point in your fundraising career you will be asked to raise money to fund a capital project. When this opportunity comes your way it’s important know that successful capital campaigns are built on three key elements:

  1. Strategy — If you expect to raise money for your capital project you must have a clearly defined project scope. This includes detailed budgets, design, and construction timelines.
  2. Funding — Most capital projects require funding beyond just how much money you raise for the project. This includes potentially using cash reserves or taking out a loan. It is important for your leadership to answer financial questions before you start raising money for the project.
  3. Communication — Capital campaigns typically fall short of their fundraising goal because they communicate the wrong things at the wrong time to the wrong people. Successful capital campaigns implement a communication plan that communicates the strategy and funding needs to the largest donors, in private, first.

Now that you know these three elements, you have the basic framework you need to help your next capital campaign succeed.

You Only Need Three Blocks

Steven  |  Uncategorized
<Other

You only need three blocks to build a successful fundraising program:

three blocks

At its essence, good fundraising is:

  • Asking a person to help your beneficiaries
  • Thanking them when they give a gift
  • Reporting back to them on the impact of their gift

Look at your organization and your fundraising materials.  Are you great at Asking donors to help your beneficiaries?*  Do you Thank donors promptly and emotionally?  Do you tell donors what their gift accomplished?

If not, you could be raising more money.

The great news is that there are best practices for each function.  They are learnable and repeatable and are in the very book that you’re holding.  You can do it if you’re a one-woman development shop, you can do it if you have a twenty-person development team.

Let me repeat something important; you can learn how to be a great fundraiser.  Being great at fundraising is a knowledge issue, not a talent issue.

This blog will teach you how to be GREAT at Asking, Thanking and Reporting.   Master each of those three skills and you’ll be on your way to being a successful fundraiser and helping your organization raise a ton of money.

It’s that simple.  It’s radical.  It’s radically effective.

heart blocks

 

Major Donor Fundraising: You Can Learn All You Need to Know About Fundraising

Jim Shapiro  |  Major Donor Fundraising, Uncategorized
Major Donor Fundraising

Being good at fundraising is a knowledge issue, not a talent issue.

This means that you can learn all you need to know about fundraising by listening and learning from fundraising experts that have gone before you.

To get you started on the path to learning, consider these simple fundraising truths:

  1. Talk less about your organization, your programs, and your process. Talk more about your beneficiaries, your donors and how your donors can help someone in need by making a donation today.
  2. Communicate more often with your donors. Most organizations don’t communicate often enough with their donors. You can increase donor retention and their giving by increasing the number of times you communicate with them throughout the year.
  3. When asking your donors for a gift, ask them to solve a problem that is easy to understand. When you simplify and clarify your fundraising ask, your donors are more likely to make a gift.

Use these three fundraising truths to build your knowledge base.  I’d encourage you to dig deeper into this blog, our videos and other fundraising training resources as you seek to build your fundraising knowledge.

You're Losing Your Donors!

Steven  |  Uncategorized
<Other

I heard it again today on a call with a client; “We’re losing our donors!  What can we do to stop it, and what can we do to get them all back?”

The first thing is to know that you can’t stop it.  The second thing to know is that you can’t get them all back.

All organizations are losing their donors at a regular rate.  Always-helpful nonprofit blogger Tom Ahern recently addressed a simple question; how long does the average donor stay with a charity?  The answer may surprise you . . .

If you’re like most charities, over half of your active donors will give you a one-time donation and then never give you another gift.  Amazing and sad, isn’t it?  50% of your donors will not continue to give to the amazing work you do and the people you serve.

There’s lots to discuss here, but there’s one surefire thing you can do to keep as many of your donors as you can; treat them like you respect and care for them.  First, Thank them promptly and emotionally.  Do that within 48 hours of their gift.  Second, Report back to them with a story of a person whose life was changed.  Do that in a printed newsletter at least once a quarter.

Those are the simplest, most powerful steps you can take to keep your donors.

Major Donor Fundraising: Did You Love Your Donors This Month?

Jim Shapiro  |  Major Donor Fundraising, Uncategorized
Major Donor Fundraising

Valentine’s day has come and gone.  And hopefully you told your donors that you and your beneficiaries love them!

Now the question is; have you told them again this month?  And what’s your plan for the month after that?  Valentine’s day should serve as a great reminder to love your donors, not only this month for the rest of the calendar year and beyond.

Your donors are giving from their emotions and heart to help someone in need.  It is your job to thank them promptly and emotionally for their gift.  Here’s how you do it:

  • The first thing your donor receives after making a gift is your receipt package. Is your receipt letter dry and boring, or is it full of emotion and appreciation?  Think of your receipt packages as the first love letter back to your donor.  Make them full of emotion about what the donor has done (given a gift), not about what your organization does (which is what most receipt packages say).
  • The next response to your donor is a thank you letter. This is a separate piece of customized and personalized communication.  Hand address the outer envelop, use personal stationary, delivers the letter using a real stamp. These little touches send the exact message you want to send to your donors.  You appreciate them and their donation mattered.
  • We all love to receive gifts. So do your donors.  It is appropriate for you to know when their birthday is and send them a special gift.  Or, identify the date of their first donation to your organization anniversary and send them a gift then.  The takeaway here is to find natural times in the calendar year to send them a gift of thanks and appreciation.

These are just a few simple reminders to carry the heart of Valentine’s Day into your every day work with your donors.  When they know you really care about them, they are more likely to give more money and more often to the work you are doing.

Donor Retention Is In The Tank!

Steven  |  Uncategorized
<Other

Venn_diagram

This venn diagram perfectly illustrates why most nonprofits have low donor retention rates.  There is a clear miss between what most nonprofit organizations talk about what their donors care about.

Here it is in a nutshell.  Here’s a list of things, in order of importance, that your donors care about:

  1. The people or cause you help. The reason your organization exists.
  2. The change that takes place in the people or cause you help. In other words, the difference that your organization makes – that your donors cause with their gift.
  3. The programs and processes of how your organization helps your beneficiaries.

In our experience, most organizations default to talking about #3; their programs and their organization.  And that’s why donor retention in the nonprofit sector is in the tank.

Instead, talk more about the people who need help, and how the donor’s gift will help them.  These are the things that most of your donors care about most – it makes sense to talk about them the most.  And when you do, you’ll raise more money.

Your Brochure is Dead!

Steven  |  Uncategorized
<Other

Your brochure is a lousy fundraising tool and should probably be put out to pasture immediately.

Strong statement, I know.  But in my experience, brochures suck up a lot of time and money – and very little results are ever tied to your brochure.  Here’s why:

  • Your brochure is all about your organization. Great fundraising materials are about your beneficiaries and what your donor can do to help one of them.  Most brochures are about what the organization does, not what a donor can do.  There’s a big difference.
  • Your brochure has too much content. Most brochures try to share everything about the organization.  The result for most readers is information overload.
  • Your brochure doesn’t have a clear call to action. Most brochures include contact information for the organization, but don’t give the reader a good reason why they should contact the organization. (And, “If you’d like to help, call 800-555…” is not a good reason why they should contact you.)

We advise clients to spend almost no time or money on their brochure.  Instead, replace your brochure (or its content) with something that explains the most compelling, easy-to-understand thing that a donor’s gift will do.  Then have the brochure ask the donor to give a gift to do that one thing. If they do that and like it, THEN they’ll want to know more about your org.

Major Donor Fundraising: Don't Push "Send"– Pick Up the Phone and Call Your Donors

Jim Shapiro  |  Major Donor Fundraising, Uncategorized
Major Donor Fundraising

Early in my career I was taught that a great fundraising professional should never have lunch alone.  Lunch is the most natural time of the day to meet with current and prospective donors.

Now, I love food and enjoy a great lunch.  But who really has the time in our fast paced lives to set a lunch appointment every day?

So, for the days you can’t have lunch with someone, I’ve evolved this thinking into 2016 and apply the “don’t send an email when you the phone will do” rule.

  • When you pick up the phone to call your donors, it sends a strong message that you care enough about them to take the time to connect.
  • Have you ever sent an email to a donor or co-worker to have it misunderstood or interpreted? Phone communication is much clearer since there is no need to translate your words, emotions or intentions.
  • Most organizations aren’t taking the time to call their donors. They are caught up in the efficiency and bulk process of email and direct mail.

Your donors deserve better, especially your major donors.  Make the time to pick up the phone and connect with your donors on a personal level.

 

The Fundraising Rhythym That Works

Jim Shapiro  |  Uncategorized
<Other

We get asked two questions all the time:

  1. What is Ask, Thank, Report Repeat?
  2. How does it work?

Here’s a quick, easy summary; Ask, Thank, Report, Repeat is a communications rhythm that nonprofits follow to build relationships with their donors and to raise more money.

And here’s each step in the rhythm:

~Ask your donors to send a gift to help your beneficiaries

~Thank people who give promptly and emotionally

~Report back to your donors on what happened because they gave (use stories, not statistics)

~Repeat the cycle to build trust and increase revenue

To learn more about the Ask, Thank, Report, Repeat rhythm, click here to watch a 3-minute summary short video.

Update: we’re hearing that a lot of people are sharing this video with their boss or Board because it explains why you need to have both appeals and newsletters.  It’s always great to hear that E.D.s and Boards are getting more educated about good fundraising!