Clairity Click-it Special Edition: Major Gift Fundraising

Click it BIG time!
Click it BIG time!

This week’s Click-it is all about major gift fundraising. What better way to begin the new year than by thinking BIG?!

I’ve pulled together an awesome group of posts from some of my favorite major gift fundraising experts.

There’s also an opportunity (at the end) for you to delve deeper into major gifts fundraising this year.

I wish you BIG, considerably sizeable fundraising results this year in order to accomplish your BIG, considerably important and serious mission.

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4 Guaranteed Ways to Research Major Donor Prospects

Know what to look for and where to look!
Know what to look for and where to look!

MAJOR GIVING.

It’s one of those terms nonprofiteers bandy about freely within the grand scheme of things to be devoutly wished for.

But precisely what constitutes a major gift, and where are they to be found? These can be difficult to pin down for your particular nonprofit.

You have to know (1) what you’re looking for, and (2) where to look.

Today I’ve asked an experienced prospect researcher, Ryan Woroniecki, Vice-President of Donor Search, to give us some practical major donor prospect identification guidance. Ryan, please take it away!

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Clairity Click-it: Fundraising Wisdom; Retention; Overhead; Time Management; Software; Social Marketing; Major Gifts

Happy New Year!

Here comes the first 2016 “Clairity Click-it” — an eclectic kick-off to the year.

I find so many great resources across the World Wide Web, some from other disciplines, and I want to share those I find most helpful. There’s so much the nonprofit sector should be learning and borrowing from others – we don’t always need to reinvent the wheel!

I’m also trying something new this year – “Dive the Five.”

I’ve selected five major themes to discuss with you this year in depth. Strategies that are so important to your success in 2016 – and beyond – that I want to be certain (1) you’ve got them on your priority list, (2) will begin to dedicate some serious resources towards them, and (3) will practice them regularly, until they become almost second nature.

If you learn to “Dive the Five” you’ll be able to raise money for anyone, any place, any time.

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What Your Donors Won’t Tell You about Your Nonprofit Newsletter

Is this how your newsletter makes your donor feel?
Is this how your newsletter makes your donor feel?

It’s boring them to tears.

Actually, let me rephrase. Not to tears. That would mean they’re feeling an emotional connection. Sadly, they’re not.

Most donor newsletters are boring to the point of numbness.

You’re not making the impact you need to make to keep your donors, let alone get them to give more the next time you ask.

Why?

Let me tell you what I learned from Penelope Burk, Donor-Centered Fundraising author, about 15 years ago. It fundamentally changed the way I communicate with donors.

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Clairity Click-it: Free Holiday Gifts + Useful Fundraising & Nonprofit Management Articles

This week's Clairity Click-it Gifts -- wrapped up in my blog. Open them!
This week’s Clairity Click-it Holiday Gifts — wrapped up in my blog. OPEN THEM!

This week’s Click-it is more of a holiday season “Open-it” collection of gifts. For the second year in a row, I’ve gone shopping and will offer you one or more free gifts every week from now until the end of the year.

These are all good. And the first one today is a real doozy — a gift to me that I’m “re-gifting!”

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13 Smart Year-End Fundraising Strategies

Team toasting
Here’s to December 31st!

It’s here, it’s here!

That giving time of year!

My dear, don’t fear!

It’s time to get in gear!

Good cheer, get clear,

As the year-end draws near…

Bad poetry aside, it really is the time to get all your ducks in a row so you don’t miss out on this time of year when many charities will receive as much as 40% of their entire annual campaign goal.

So I’ve got 13 tips to give your year-end fundraising a shot in the arm!

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Clairity Click-it Year-End Giving Edition 3: Online Frenzy Time

In my previous Year-End Fundraising Planning Editions One  and Two I promised I would have more for you as year-end – and the biggest fundraising time of the year for most nonprofits – inexorably approaches.  Salsa reports that end-of-year giving can result in 40% or more of total yearly donations.

Online giving gets particularly frenetic at this time of year.

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Supercharge Your Year-End Nonprofit Emails with Foolproof Subject Lines ♡

4 Killer Techniques
Plus some Secret Little Tips (see below)

Still stuck for subject lines for your year-end emails?

Your subject line is like your outer envelope for direct mail.

A window into your message.

Make sure it’s open enough to give a glimpse of something intriguing… urgent… exciting… emotional… shocking… funny… useful… anything compelling to grabs folks’ attention.

The more specific and to the point, the better.

NOTE: if you’re not planning a series of year-end emails — get on it NOW! If you’re sending less than 7 emails in December, you’re below the nonprofit average.  You don’t want to be below average do you?

As much as a full third (33%) of December gifts occur on the 31st of the month! Last year the percentage increase in overall fundraising was 2.1%, while the increase in online fundraising was 8.9%.

If you’re not online, putting forward your most compelling fundraising offer at a time when folks are primed to give the most, you’re missing your best opportunity.

Here are some subject line techniques I particularly like, with thoughts about how you can use them to boost your year-end fundraising:

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Not Your Usual Year-End Nonprofit Donation Issues

Not_Your_Usual_Year-End_Donation_IssuesI doubt you’re worrying your pretty little heads about this stuff, but you should be.

Because year-end giving is simply too fraught with angst — and it needn’t be that way!

Giving to your nonprofit should be a joyful experience for your donors – before, during and after the transaction.

Not an anxious period of wondering whether their credit card transaction is secure, whether their gift went into a black hole or whether you’ll use it as they intended.

And guess what else?

Receiving donations should be a joyous occasion for you too.

Not an unmitigated nightmare of receiving credit card numbers that don’t work, worrying about how already busy staff can possibly process all your year-end donations and, for that matter, do so in a timely, professional and personal manner.

So give yourself and your donors a break.

How to do this? 

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