Last Friday, I was one of five Giving Institute members who served on a panel organized by editors of The Chronicle of Philanthropy and moderated by Holly Hall, a Chronicle features editor. The session was part of the Giving Institute’s conference, held in conjunction with the AFP International Conference that kicked off Sunday. Our panel… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Donors
Upswing in Corporate Giving? What It Means
An article in The Chronicle of Philanthropy last week reported that “cuts to corporate giving budgets are slowing this year.” A study by the Conference Board said 20 percent of the businesses surveyed plan to reduce their charitable giving in 2010, compared with 53 percent in 2009. While this is good news, it doesn’t mean… Read more »
Tuesday Fundraising Tip
Here’s the sixth fundraising tip in our series of 10 Tips for 2010: Develop a detailed cultivation plan for each of your top donors. No two donors are alike. They have different funding interests, different concerns, different schedules. But when they’re your top donors, someone connected with your organization has a relationship with them. And that’s… Read more »
How to Find New Donors
Recently several people have asked me about prospect research—how to find and manage new potential donors. After asking some questions, it became clear that these organizations were thinking more about new prospects than they were about renewing or increasing past donors. When I mentioned this to Keith, he said that in the last three trainings… Read more »
Tuesday Fundraising Tip
In the last couple of tips, we’ve focused on how your board can help raise money during the economic recovery. This week’s tip, our fifth in the series, is all about donors. To remain a philanthropic priority during the recovery, you have to keep your current donors close to you. Some nonprofits mistakenly believe that challenging… Read more »
Even Online, It’s All About Relationships
At the Hampton Roads Institute for Nonprofit Leadership Conference last Friday, I went to a good workshop by our Giving Institute colleague Jay Love of eTapestry. It was called “The Internet Unveiled: The Newest Tools & Website Trends for Relationship Building,” with the key words being “relationship building.” Jay’s message was to make sure your online… Read more »
How Much Should You Rely on Corporate Giving?
A Jan. 14 article in Business Week discussed the decline in corporate philanthropy during the economic downturn. It also pointed out that companies are giving more strategically, often contributing to causes that will raise their visibility. This is another good reason to diversify your funding sources. As Keith noted in our last blog post, corporate… Read more »
How One Couple’s Call Created a Free Clinic
Last week we announced a new blog feature that will showcase the ways a few volunteers have made a huge difference in their community. Here’s our first story. In 1995, Dr. Jim Shaw and his wife, Cooka, chose to answer a persistent call they were feeling to provide health care for the uninsured. First, they… Read more »
Donor Stewardship: Need Your Thoughts
For the last five years, a good friend of mine has given $750 a year to a nonprofit that serves people in need. It’s a worthy cause, no doubt, and my friend understands that the need has grown. He noted that in the last six weeks, he’s received three direct-mail appeals from the organization. But… Read more »
Are Donors on Your Gratitude List?
With Thanksgiving upon us, it seems appropriate to talk about the importance of thanking donors. Everyone likes to be thanked for a gift. When it’s a charitable gift, donors also appreciate knowing what their money helped accomplish. It’s important that development professionals and their board members are doing simple but powerful things like sending handwritten thank-you… Read more »
