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10 Ways to Get More Donors for Your Nonprofit – Part 1

10 ways to get more donors for your nonprofit using principles of psychologyToday’s focus is on donor retention, as our year-long “Dive the Five” virtual course continues!  In fact, you can use the principles you learn here for donor acquisition as well. In for-profit parlance, we’ll be discussing how to “convert customers.”  In non-profit parlance it’s all about turning prospects into donors and donors into repeat donors.

I encourage you to make this the year you begin to study psychology and apply it more to your integrated development (marketing and fundraising) strategy.

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Successful Storytelling: 5 Foolproof Ways to Raise Money

Content is the heart of your successful fundraising strategy.

If you don’t sell it, you won’t connect with your audience.

And if you don’t connect with your audience, you haven’t got a snowball’s chance in you know where to persuade folks to give to you to further your mission.

This is where learning to become a master storyteller comes in.

I know you’ve heard this before. Storytelling is the meme du jour.

But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t pay real attention.

We’re in a content marketing zeitgeist.

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13 Smart Year-End Fundraising Strategies

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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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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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7 More Weeks – Are You Ready for Year-End Fundraising?

7_More_Weeks-Ready_for_Year-End_FundraisingThis is the giving season! Between now and December 31st, statistically, are the “make or break” weeks for your annual fundraising. It doesn’t matter what fiscal year you’re on. Donors operate on a calendar year.

So I’m offering up 5 tips to help you out.

Because people do most of their giving between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve — and I don’t want you to miss out

It’s a time when people feel grateful for friends, family and other blessings, and are inclined to be generous towards others. They want to share their blessings.

Your job is to tap into these feelings of generosity when they’re most at the surface. To strike while the iron is hot.

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It’s Not All about Major Gifts: 10 Ways to Succeed with Small Gift Fundraising

Small giftsNot long ago I went to research something online and ended up viewing the first entry Google gave me – which was on Wikipedia. To my delight, I ran into an awesome fundraising campaign (this is an occupational hazard with fundraisers – we actually like and admire things like pledge breaks when they’re done well)!

Here’s what I found superimposed at the top of the screen:

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Foolproof Fundraising Trick Mom Knows and You Need

I’m a huge fan of a too-little used tool when it comes to fundraising. It’s called behavioral neuroscience, and it’s pretty awesome stuff.

Moms use it all the time without evening thinking about it. Moms. Just. Know.

I’ll bet you even use it yourself. Unconsciously.

But what if you could use it intentionally to persuade prospective donors to say “yes” to investing in your cause? Or to give more often or with greater passion?

You can!

Today we’re going to talk about one foolproof way to get donors — and anyone — to do what you want them to do.

And it’s as simple as Mom saying “Because I said so!

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Why No Pain Trumps Gain in Fundraising Offers

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We really can’t stand to lose things – it’s something bred into us early on.

I’m about to clairify a subtle but very important point about what motivates philanthropic giving. After all, that’s what the “Clairification” blog is all about.

It’s often said that people give to people.  So true.

But people are funny.

People will often give more to people who show them the pain that can be avoided through their gift rather than the people who show them the good that can be gained.

Seems counter-intuitive, right?

Absolutely. So here’s a little reminder that people don’t always behave as you might intuitively believe they would.  Which is why fundraising is part art and part science. And here’s something we know from the research:

Fear of loss weighs heavier than hope of gain

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How to Magically Multiply Your Donors

By now I hope you’ve read the latest Fundraising Effectiveness Survey results and know that, on average, U.S. and UK nonprofits are retaining only 41% of their donors. This is abysmal, and it makes me sad.

When I started out in fundraising, many moons ago, I consistently retained 60 – 70% of my donors. And I thought that was insufficient!

While there are all sorts of reasons this is happening, what matters most is stopping the attrition before your nonprofit withers and dies. Because at these rates, after seven years you’ll only have 10 out of 1,000 new donors you acquire today. You read that correctly! Did I mention that first-time donor retention rates are only 27%?

Time for some magical math.

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