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!”
Want to keep more donors? It’s simple really.
What it all boils down to is one key idea. YOU.
You and the role you play in assuring your donor gets lasting satisfaction from their gift.
A prompt, personal thank you is a beginning. Yet it won’t have lasting effect.
You must go above and beyond the “donor receipt” —
I’ve been thinking a lot about crowdfunding lately.
Bzz… bzz… buzz… buzz… Do you hear it?
It’s the sound of the times. It’s the bees flying around crowdfunding campaigns like honey. Sweet, golden honey.
Are you getting yours?
With the mainstream shift into digital communication, and the advance of technology through online donation and peer-to-peer fundraising platforms, crowdfunding is something I believe you should seriously consider if you’re not already getting your “crowd” on.
Especially if you have…
So I’ve put together a few resources, and some of my own thoughts, to help you think things through.
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%?
I’ve a really eclectic mix of links this week, ranging from marketing to fundraising to management – and then some! Plus you’ll find some free resources and your last chance opportunity to improve your year-end fundraising (scroll to the bottom). Can you believe this will be the last “Click-it” in August? How’d it get to be September so soon? You know what that means – year-end fundraising is right around the corner! Stay tuned to my blog as I’ll be offering lots of tips to help you out. Meanwhile… enjoy the rest of the season.
Are you starting to worry about whether you’ll raise enough money this year to meet your goals? Are you concerned because last year’s appeal didn’t raise as much as you had hoped? Are you fresh out of ideas for what to put into an appeal to generate the giving response you need to sustain vital programs? Fear not! Help is on the way! Just use this 16-point checklist before you send anything to your printer.
Once again it’s the end of the week. Woo hoo! Time for your weekly serving of interesting links from around the web. This week, they’re mostly nonprofit specific. And they’re useful too! There’s help if you need to get your website mobile ready. Plus social media guidelines to get you a bit more action in return for your labor. Then there’s a great study – with tons of data – so you can benchmark your results against industry averages. And there are tips to help you with major gifts and with staff and organizational leadership. Plus, as always, some great learning opportunities for you (scroll to the bottom).
Are you starting to worry about whether you’ll raise enough money this year to meet your goals?
Are you concerned because last year’s appeal didn’t raise as much as you had hoped?
Are you fresh out of ideas for what to put into an appeal to generate the giving response you need to sustain vital programs?
Fear not! Help is on the way! Just use this 16-point checklist before you send anything to your printer.
I happen to currently be working with a number of nonprofits who are seeking to hire the perfect development officer. It’s got me thinking about what to look for in a candidate, and how to best assess someone’s likely ability to perform the job as you need them to perform it.
Of course, this will vary from organization to organization. But if you’re seeking someone to fill a one-person or two-person development shop, there is remarkable similarity in the performance habits (practice) and innate qualities (psychology) that will spell success.
Here’s this week’s Clairity Click-it, the most intriguing and thought-provoking of the more than 100 articles I seem to read every week – all in an easy-to-“click-it” format with links to posts in fundraising, marketing, social media, leadership, change and all sorts of good stuff. I aim for an eclectic array, often sourced from more than one discipline, as I believe we can learn a lot from our colleagues in other sectors. Of course, I add in a few comments of my own.
Let’s begin:
Philanthropy; Not Fundraising
In many ways, what’s new is old and what’s old is new. I read a lot of Brian Solis who speaks persuasively about The End of Business as Usual in an era where technology is advancing more rapidly than our ability to adapt. Yet we must adapt, or die. How do we do this, and what does this mean for fundraisers? I found food for thought in Solis’ recent article, The 9 Laws of Affinity in an Era of Digital Darwinism.
Rapid change can be dizzying. Ground yourself by remembering that though technology has changed, people have not. We have the same drives… needs… yearnings as prehistoric tribes. It’s not just about survival. Darwin wrote about survival of the most empathic. We long for connection and meaning. In other words, it’s not just about the “fittest” but about the “fitting.” Philanthropy provides that “fit opportunity” in spades (or, more aptly, in hearts).
Philanthropy; Not Fundraising
I’ve often wondered why we’re the only sector that defines ourselves by what we’re NOT. Nonprofit. Why not what we ARE? Social benefit. Rather than focusing so much on how to scrimp and save and be as cost-efficient as possible, shouldn’t we be focusing on how to spend and grow and be as big and effective as possible?
Nonprofits are stuck in a vicious cycle that jeopardizes their ability to raise the resources they need to succeed. Three “town criers” have recently shed light on the growing problem. Though they come at the problem from different perspectives, it is arguable that they’re headed in the same direction. Let’s take a look at the underlying reasons for the sector’s inability to build sustainable capacity.