Fundraising Secret #79: Make Your Gift First

Have you ever asked someone trying to sell you a product if they use it themselves? It can be pretty illuminating. After all, if they don’t use the product, perhaps it’s not a good one for you to use either. So too with fundraising. If you’re asking for money, be sure...

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How to Become a Fundraising Hero

How To Become a Fundraising Hero - International Bowl Expo 2010View more presentations from Marc Pitman. Here are my slides from today's session How to Become a Fundraising Hero at the 2010 International Bowl Expo here in Las Vegas, NV. I really had a blast talking to...

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Book Review: Guerrilla Market for Nonprofits

Book Review: Guerrilla Market for Nonprofits

I'm surprised by how many nonprofit professionals see "marketing" as a bad word, a practice that is somehow beneath them. If that's your attitude, a new book called Guerrilla Marketing for Nonprofits will help you move beyond that and become excellent at communicating...

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Are there creative ways to publicly thank donors?

Q:My organization is building an endowment fund and several people have made generous donations in the past few months. Of course, we've thanked them personally, but we want to find a more "public" way of recognizing them. We will include them in a special list in our...

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Printed Donor Lists: To do or not to do?

Q: What are your thoughts about including an annual roll of donors in a (printed) annual report? Our staff is split 50/50 on whether that is still useful, necessary, or appropriate. Thanks. Katie Benston, Dir. of Annual Support Hospice & Palliative Care Charlotte...

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Fundraising Secret #45: SAY THANK YOU!

As kids, most of us were trained to say "thank you." Some of us even had parents that required us to write "thank you" notes to relatives that gave us gifts. So why don't we say "thank you" to our donors? The very people that fund our mission. That give out of their...

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Perfect opportunity for a corporate ask?

Q: Hi Marc! 🙂 You seem to know much about fundraising...any great ideas on a fundraiser for Cub Scouts...we need to raise $1500 for a new pinewood derby track...however the pack is in an area that the people don't have tons of money...HELP! I need a jump start. TY...

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5 tips on choosing your nonprofit URL

Q: Marc, I'm embarrassed to admit that we don't yet have a website. But do you have any advice about choosing a domain name? A: Great question! Getting a memorable domain name is a very important step in online fundraising. All fundraising, really. Donors often check...

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It’s Beth Kanter’s birthday

Today's the birthday of the amazing Beth Kanter. I love her passion for nonprofits and social media. I'm particularly grateful for her helping us in the nonprofit world articulate metrics and ROI. Not only is she a really smart teacher, she's also doing the actual...

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Fundraising Secret #44: Up your giving this year

Wondering how to increase your fundraising effectiveness in 2010? Here's an idea: increasing your personal giving...to other organizations (not your own). Go check out Jeff Brook's blog post "Fundraisers who don't give don't get it." In it, he refers to a post by Seth...

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SOFII needs your help

Many of you have heard me extol the virtues of SOFII in the past. SOFII stands for "The Showcase of Fundraising Innovation and Inspiration." And what a showcase it is! For the low cost of free, you can view articles from the greatest fundraisers from around the globe....

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Fundraising Secret #43: Fundraising takes guts

I was talking to a friend last week about her fundraising efforts. She was having second thoughts about a mailing that was going to business leaders she knew and respected. I'd rarely heard her confidence this shaken. As we started discussing the letter, I asked her...

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I’m so grateful this TweetsGiving

As most of you know, I am an avid fan of social media tools like Twitter and Facebook. They don't replace normal fundraising techniques, but they sure to extend our ability to reach our donors and donor prospects. So this week, I want to tell you about a cool...

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Tweetsgiving is almost here!

What happens when techie people decide to express their gratitude during Thanksgiving? TweetsGiving of course! Will you join me in tweeting your gratitude? You can find out all about it at: http://tweetsgiving.org/. Be sure to click on the "join us" link. But hurry,...

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Facebook Marketing advice in the NYT

Waterville's amazing librarian, Sarah Sugden passed on this terrific article from the New York Times, How to Market Your Business With Facebook. It's well worth reading for nonprofits too. For instance, take this great advice: Some basic rules: Buy-buy-buy messages...

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Hospitals helping Fort Hood Casualties

One of the privileges of working in philanthropy is seeing people rise to the challenge when tragedy strikes. Yesterday, this email came across an email list for those of us involved in AHP, the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy. Neil gave me permission to share...

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21 Ways for Board Members to Engage with their Nonprofit's Fundraising book image

You'll discover the 21 ways each board member can help their nonprofit's fundraising - even if they don't like to ask for money!

As a bonus, you'll get free fundraising tips every other week too!

Help your board fundraise for nonprofit with this FREE ebook

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