Today, for the fourth year in a row, Keith moderated VOLUNTEER Hampton Roads’ Annual Funders Forum. This event, which brings together funders from across Hampton Roads, always produces a variety of interesting takeaways. An underlying theme of the funders’ comments from this year’s forum was the importance of a nonprofit operating like a business. The… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Donors
From the Donor’s Perspective
As a part of our daily work we spend a lot of time listening to donors share their candid impressions of our client’s organizations as a whole; everything from the effectiveness of the staff and board to the way they are cultivated. Through the planning study, development assessment and capacity building interview process we learn… Read more »
Tips on Converting Event Donors to Organizational Donors
We recently tuned in to an informative webinar on “Converting Event Donors to Organizational Donors” presented by fellow Giving Institute member, Event 360. The webinar, part of Giving Institute’s monthly series, opened by defining the characteristics of these two distinctly different types of donors—the difference being the individual’s degree of knowledge, connection, motivation and investment…. Read more »
The Importance of Engaging (and Retaining) Volunteers
Last week, the Richmond Times-Dispatch interviewed Keith for an article addressing the surprisingly low volunteer rate in the Richmond,Virginia area. The article juxtaposes this reality against the fact that 2010 actually showed the highest growth rate in U.S. volunteerism since 2005, climbing to 63 million. So why is it that only 20.9% of Richmond-area residents volunteered… Read more »
Giving USA Spotlight: Relationship Cultivation Using Social Media
As most nonprofits are wrapping up the final week of their annual giving campaign and gearing up for the New Year, we wanted to share some valuable information from the latest edition of the 2011 Giving USA Spotlight series. The third and final issue of the year, entitled, “Relationship Cultivation Using Social Media” offers good… Read more »
What Motivates Us To Give?
Last night, as part of its philanthropy series, American Public Media’s “Marketplace” aired a story that examined how people think about giving. Host Kai Ryssdal interviewed Yale economist Dean Karlan on what motivates us to give. Dean provided an optimistic take on the recession and how it motivates donors to focus on the analytical side of supporting… Read more »
Donor Awareness of Telemarketing
Because promoting philanthropy is our life’s work, we felt the need to comment on a series of articles, as well as an editorial that ran in our local newspaper, The Virginian-Pilot, over the past several days on “professional fundraising companies” (i.e., telemarketing firms and professional solicitors, who differ greatly from professional fundraising counsel like The Curtis Group)…. Read more »
What You Should Know About Millennial Donors
Earlier this week we participated in a Giving Institute-sponsored webinar, entitled “Engaging Millennials Now For the Future Prosperity of Your Development Program.” The webinar cited a lot of interesting research from a recently published survey of millennial donors. We thought we’d share some of the highlights: Giving/Motivations for Giving: 93% of Millennials surveyed gave to nonprofit… Read more »
What Makes Your Nonprofit Effective?
The Curtis Group enjoyed being a sponsor of and participating in VOLUNTEER Hampton Roads’ 2011 Funders Forum. The morning began with a panel of five, local foundation representatives responding to and sharing conversation over various questions. I enjoyed hearing the responses to this question: How do you determine what makes a nonprofit effective? The first panelist… Read more »
Are You Receiving Gifts From Donor-Advised Funds?
While in Chicago, I attended a presentation on the role of community foundations in today’s giving environment. Jason Baxendale, director of gift planning for The Chicago Community Trust, and Terry Shavone, The Columbus Foundation’s vice president for donor services and development (both of which are ranked in the top 10 largest community foundations in the… Read more »
