I love LinkedIn Answers! Answering other people questions is nice. But I love seeing people’s answers to questions I ask. I’m currently asking What do YOU say when asked “Where do you find donors?”. You see, I work with a lot of start-up nonprofits. And many, many of them seem to think I have a [...]

[Read more →]

I took today as a reading day, and committed to reading the copy of Content Rules [amazon affiliate link]. What a great book! Share or Solve; Don’t Shill My favorite chapter is called “Share or Solve; Don’t Shill.” Ann Handley & CC Chapman talk about the importance of engaging with prospects and your community rather [...]

[Read more →]

I woke up this morning to my Twitter stream being filled with tweets about the royal wedding–both people watching it and people tweeting about people watching it! Those tweets got me thinking about fundraising…because that’s just how I am. 3 Ways the Royal Wedding is like fundraising The royal wedding involved mutual vetting Just like [...]

[Read more →]

Earlier this month, I mentioned how excited I was about the products that I’ve got coming out this year. Today, I get to announce another really cool offering: the “Ask Without Fear! DVD”! Many of you who’ve read my book or attended my seminars have asked for a DVD version. Something you can use for [...]

[Read more →]

I’ve just created a page of the quotations used in my fundraising training book. These have helped so many of the thousands of people that have read the book that I’ll also be sharing some of them on Twitter with the hashtag #awfquotes. There are 55 quotes about fundraising, the steps to successful fundraising (researching, [...]

[Read more →]

In the last post on goal setting, we looked at how to identify goals for all areas of your life. I firmly believe that if you did nothing more than write those goals down, you’ll be exponentially more effective at accomplishing them. But you can speed up the process by creating a road map for [...]

[Read more →]

I just love the week of Thanksgiving. Having those few days off to be with family and friends puts me in a reflective mode that I find perfect for formalizing my 2011 goals. I say “formalizing” because I’m constantly working on my goals, scheduling speaking gigs and clients, and doing marketing. That’s just normal business– [...]

[Read more →]

This week, I’m introducing you to Pamela Grow. If your board wants you trying for grants, read this post. Then head over to Pamela’s blog to sign up for her free 5-part course on successful foundation funding. “It does not happen all at once. There is no instant pudding.” W. Edwards Deming When a colleague [...]

[Read more →]

As a fundraising professional, you should be getting fundraising and leadership training annually. But I’ve heard that the average development professional stays in their position for 18 months. Since the downturn of 2008 that might be a little longer. In any case, your board and your volunteers will be with your organization longer than you. [...]

[Read more →]

Lately I’ve been getting lots of questions about how individuals can fundraise for walkathon events and many other -athons: bike, bowl, etc. Here are some of the ideas I’ve been offering:

First of all, good for you! Thank you for caring enough about the cause to put yourself out there and raise money for it. Our world is a much better place because of people like you. Thank you!

• RESEARCH
  The first step in any fundraising effort is to research. By doing research up front, you–or you and your team–will lay a terrific foundation for achieving your goals. Here are some suggestions on what to do:
  1. Determine how much are you are going to raise

  Specifically. Not the “more-is-better” answer but how much? $1,000? $2,500?

  This will often come from the minimum amount you need to raise to be part of the event. But what if you raised more? Figure out a specific dollar amount.

  2. Find out if the nonprofit has different giving levels to recognize donors
     Often nonprofits will recognize donors by assigning them to a donor level “Founders” or “Contributors” or “Patron.” Find out if the group you’re supporting uses these and if gifts given by your friends will be recognized in this way. It’ll help later on.

  3. Develop a plan to reaching that goal
     If you’re trying to raise $2500, it’s easy to fall prey to thinking you “only” need to find 100 people to give $25.

     This just doesn’t happen.

     We’ve been studying fundraising for decades. Although this sounds wonderfully egalitarian, experience shows that people give varying amounts.

     Plus, if you only ask $25 from someone who’d gladly have given $100, you’re leaving money on the table.

     To do the research of creating a plan, go to a tool like GiftRangeCalculator.com. Plug in the amount you want to raise and the calculator tells you what size gifts you need to ask for and how many prospects you need.

     If you do it for $2500, you’ll get something like this:
     

     You’ll see that it recommends your top gift be $625–the equivalent of 25 people giving $25! A tool like this is based on decades of fundraising experience and can really help you develop a map to raising the amount of money you need.

     You’ll also see that if you get all the gifts recommended, you’ll actually raise $3200. I did this intentionally. I wanted this calculation to be conservative so that even if you miss some of the 49 gifts, you’ll still reach your goal.

     I also did this because if your cause is worth fundraising for, it’s worth raising more than the minimum!

[Read more →]