Tag: fundraising

Progress, Not Perfection

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
Progress.

It’s January, and it’s good to admit that your fundraising in 2026 will not be perfect. 

Everyone will make mistakes and miss opportunities.

But our job is to make progress, not to be perfect.  And progress can look pretty simple:

  • The plan for your top major donors is a little more specific this year
  • You send one more piece of fundraising than you sent last year
  • You spend a little time getting better at subject lines and teasers so that your open rates are higher this year (and next year)

“Raising more money” can feel hard.  Making progress and getting a little bit better at fundraising isn’t.

Presence Implies Importance

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
Being present.

If your cause and your nonprofit are always showing up in the lives of your donors, your donors come to believe that your organization is doing important work.

Think about this in your own life: it’s likely there’s a nonprofit that you “run into” all the time because you see their fundraising and regularly hear about the cause they are working on.  And it’s likely that you, perhaps without even realizing it, come to believe that those nonprofits are doing important work.

Contrast this to the organizations that show up in their donors’ lives just once or twice a year.  One of the messages “showing up a couple times a year” sends is that the work and the organization must not be that important.  Because if it were important, they would show up more often, right?

I’m not saying this is fair.  But it sure is true.

What does this mean for you?  It means that if your nonprofit wants to grow, part of your job is to be present in donors’ lives, in a relevant way, often.

Giving Thanks for You

Steven Screen  |  Thank
Happy Thanksgiving.

We are thankful to be Fundraisers.  We get great joy from creating connections and funding good work – and hope that you do, too. 

One of our favorite quotes is Dr. Martin Luther King’s: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”  And I like to think that you and I have ‘bent the arc’ a little bit towards justice this year. 

The work you do matters.  And it makes a difference.

So Happy Thanksgiving, thanks for letting Better Fundraising be a part of your journey, and thanks for being a Fundraiser!

Two TED Talks

Steven Screen  |  Tips
Ted talks.

Today I’d like to share two videos with you.  Both are easy watches and contain “ideas worth spreading.”

The first is Dan Pallotta’s TED talk from a few years ago.  (It has 1.1 million views, but it should have a lot more, in my opinion.) 

It’s called “The way we think about charity is dead wrong.”  Essentially, Dan argues that by focusing so much on “revenue to expense ratios” we end up kneecapping our growth and impact.

Second, here’s a helpful video from Kara Logan Berlin.  She helps people see the importance of fundraising, and provides plenty of fundraising advice that jives with what we’ve seen to be successful. 

Speaking to nonprofits, Kara says, “We have to be as committed to the art of funding our work as we are to the art of doing our work.” [emphasis added]

Both of these videos lead a person to a deeper understanding of fundraising.  And in my experience, if you have a deeper understanding of fundraising itself, and the role of fundraising, you’ll be more likely to create fundraising that works.

Difficult and Joyful

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
Difficult joy

Here’s the thing I wish more new Fundraisers heard right at the beginning of their fundraising journey…

Fundraising is hard and always will be.  It’s also joyful.

Fundraisers need the emotional strength to ask people for help.  You also have to figure out the right people to ask & the right time to ask them & the right way to ask them.

Additionally, you’re regularly exposed to the problem or situation your nonprofit was founded to address.

And yet… fundraising can bring incredible joy if you let it.  The fundraising work you do helps fund the incredible programs your organization operates.  Those programs cause the change that your organization exists to make.

And you know those donors you have?  The ones who have no programs and no way of helping on their own?  You make it possible for them to help in powerful ways, and they love to help.

And you get the satisfaction of doing the courageous, emotionally vulnerable hard work of asking for help. 

I get deep joy in doing all the hard things to succeed in fundraising in order to fund programs and connect with donors, and I hope you do too.

Three Core Functions

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
3 Core Functions.

The following is from my friend Richard Perry, and it’s too good not to share:

There are three core functions of a nonprofit:

  1. Deliver programs to solve a societal problem.
  2. Inspire and retain supporters to fund it.
  3. Build internal systems that support both.

That is so clear, and so true. 

What I like about what Richard says, and why I want to see it spread, is that this thinking convincingly makes the case that Fundraising (“inspiring and retaining supporters”) is equally important to Program.  And it specifically calls nonprofits to “build internal systems that support both.”

But if your experience is anything like mine, you feel that most nonprofits do not treat Fundraising equally to Program. 

That happens for lots of legitimate reasons: most Founders are program-oriented and naturally focus their time & effort in that area, plus fundraising is by nature uncomfortable to most people.  Additionally, fundraising education has not kept up with the explosion of nonprofits in the U.S.

Fine.

But the shift to “treating Fundraising equally to Program” is one that immediately helps the organization.  The “flywheel effect” is obvious: the fundraising becomes more effective, the organization is better at retaining fundraising talent, the organization retains more donors each year, and the organization raises more money.

The mature, national organizations I served at the beginning of my career had all made this shift.  I think that tells you something.

If you’re a leader of an organization that hasn’t made this shift, it’s worth exploring what’s stopping you.

If you’re working at an organization that hasn’t made this shift, it’s worth sharing this thinking and having a conversation.

10 Years of Above Average Growth

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
Above average.

There’s a nonprofit that Better Fundraising has been serving for about 10 years.  And during those years, the nonprofit has experienced above-average growth. 

I was asked to summarize why this organization’s fundraising to individual donors has experienced this uninterrupted run of success.  And I’d like to share that summary with you in case it helps you raise more money.

We have the following beliefs about the world and about individual donors:

  • We’re in a world where there are almost twice as many nonprofits the U.S. than there were 25 years ago.
  • We live in a world where people receive, on average, between 6,000 and 10,000 marketing messages per day
  • We believe that individual donors are materially different than staff, board members, or volunteers.  We believe that individual donors are not subject matter experts like we are, and they care about and value different things than staff do.
  • We know that the average donor in the United States is 68 years old.
  • In the context of direct response fundraising (direct mail, email, phone, radio), we know that Individual donors tend to make the “give-or-not-give” decisions in mere seconds. 
  • We believe that many donors would love to give more than once per year, but that’s only likely to happen if we ask them to.
  • We believe that donors appreciate knowing reasons and stories that show the organization’s work (and the donors’ support) is needed today.
  • We believe that communicating often enough to donors so that the organization is a regular, relevant presence in their lives will lead to more donations than occasional or sporadic communications.

These beliefs lead us to create direct response fundraising and major donor programs with the following goals:

  • Communicate with donors more often than internal audiences might think is necessary.
  • Create communications that are dramatic and urgent, in order to break through the noise and earn donors’ attention.
  • Write and design our communications to touch donors’ values and emotions more than trying to appeal to what the organization values. 

These beliefs and goals have led to 10 years of above-average growth.

There’s more than just beliefs and goals, of course.  You have to maintain your database.  You have to learn what does (and what doesn’t) go on an effective landing page.  You have to learn how to structure a major donor development system.

But all of those are tactics that can be learned by anyone.

If your fundraising isn’t regularly and consistently growing, look at the beliefs and goals that drive your fundraising program.  And if you need a new belief or goal, the ones above are a great place to start because they are proven to guide you to make tactical choices that will help you build deeper relationships with your donors and raise more money.

Maintain Wonder While Being Skeptical

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
Sense of wonder.

There’s a great quote from Carl Sagan that, while not ostensibly about fundraising, is absolutely about fundraising:

“At the heart of science is a balance between two seemingly contradictory attitudes – an openness to new ideas, no matter how bizarre or counterintuitive, and the most ruthlessly skeptical scrutiny of all ideas, old and new.  This is how deep truths are winnowed from deep nonsense.”

I post that quote today for multiple fun reasons…

I laughed when I read it because there’s a lot of “deep nonsense” in the fundraising world. 

The phrase “deep nonsense” is exceptional writing.  It’s catchy, contradictory, and true all at the same time.

I’ve always admired Carl Sagan.  He and Neil DeGrasse Tyson are mentors of a sort to me.

And speaking of mentors, the next few blog posts are going to be from some of my “fundraising mentors.”

There will be some names you recognize, and hopefully some names that you don’t.  Each post coming your way is great (I’ve vetted every single one).  Hopefully you’ll be introduced to some new people who will become part of your tribe of fundraising mentors.

As a reader of this blog, I’m betting you have some of that “wonder” at this amazing thing called Fundraising that we get to do.  And you have some of the skepticism that “winnows the deep truths from the deep nonsense.”

I hope the next posts will help you identify some new ideas and mentors to help you do even more good than you’re already doing!

Direct mail and… Kale?

Steven Screen  |  Ask
Kale.

Direct mail is like kale – nobody likes it the first time they try it.

Kale is a tough, leafy vegetable that tastes like a hedge.

But over time, a person can come to see the benefits of eating kale.  You start to appreciate kale.  And with the right prep and dressings, even enjoy it.

Direct mail is a tough, counter-intuitive, expensive way to raise money.

But over time, an organization can come to see the revenue that direct mail brings in and the relationship it builds.  You start to appreciate direct mail.  And with the right approach and understanding, even enjoy it.

Kale will never be as enjoyable as a cheeseburger.  Direct mail will never be as enjoyable as a great conversation with a major donor, or the emotional high of a beneficiary’s story at an event.

You might not like direct mail or kale.  But both of them are still good for you.

This post was originally published on February 6, 2024.