Thanks to everyone that responded to my “how do you find fundraising help in the web” email last week.
Many asked me to share my results so here they are:
Fundraising search terms
non-profit capital campaign, planned giving forms, annual campaign, foundations, grant opportunities, grant writing workshops, sample donation request letter, chocolate tasting fundraiser, +fundraising, +humane [...]

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Anyone that’s read my $100,000 Guide to E-mail Solicitation knows that I’m a big proponent of simple, effective emails.
Chris Brogan has an incredibly helpful post on Writing More Effective Email. Read it and benefit.
I love the simple concept of using the subject to clearly state what the emails are about. Wouldn’t that one step alone [...]

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One of my favorite stories is Winston Churchill’s definition of “diplomacy.”
According to what I heard, Churchill said: “Diplomacy is not saying, ‘Lady, your face is so ugly it would stop a clock’ but ‘Darling, when I look into your eyes, time stands still.’”
I love it!
And I was reminded of this when I [...]

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Check this out: now you can search for a nonprofit on GuideStar and make a donation at the same time!
Click “donate now” and you’ll get a link like this snazzy way to give to the Inland Foundation.
All the more reason to have pretty 990’s!
You can bet I’ll be finding out how to do this with [...]

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I’ve just tweaked my page at Squidoo.
Sorry. My “lens” at Squidoo!
If you use Squidoo, I’d love to hear the things you like most about it. Feel free to post a comment here.

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Nancy Schwartz is hosting this month’s Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants.
Check it out to see what the three top things some of us are committing to in 2008.
It’s not to early to start thinking about your 2008 goals. Be sure to check out my MagnetGoals program!

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Mal Warwick first got me thinking about how often I use “you” (or I don’t use “you”!) in my fundraising letters.
Here’s a sort of test I saw in Fundraising Success magazine.

Does Your Messaging Pass the ‘You’ Test?
“The ‘you’ test is the quickest, surest way I know to judge whether materials are basically ‘donor ready.’ [...]

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Here’s a great blog post on how not to send an email message.
Please do yourself a favor and read: Six Ways to Screw Up a Customer Email.
Are you guilty of doing you any of these?

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Jeff Brooks over at the ever insightful Donor Power Blog, has a great comparison of traditional fundraising vs. effective fundraising. (He calls it: The differences between good and bad fundraising.)

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