Fundraising Secret #39: Learn to love objections
If you're going to ask people for money, you've got to learn to love objections. Or at least be comfortable with them! Working on a session for the APRA conference in Boston, I'm relearning how fun objections can be. Seriously, if there were no objections, we wouldn't...
Join the conversation in Twitter – get social with “social media”
I'm thrilled with the increase in Twitter usage I'm seeing! More and more people are checking it out. Here's a tip: feel free to reply to other people's tweets. If people are using Twitter, they know their comments are public. If they wanted to be private, they...
Happy New Year! (Fiscally speaking…)
For many readers of this blog, today is the end of the fiscal year. Congratulations! You’ve made it! What are you doing to celebrate? We live in a fast paced world. And our organization's financial needs are insatiable. All too often, our year end is merely punctuated...
Fundraising Secret #38: Make Online Fundraising Easy
As the recession continues, and our need for funds grows, I continue to believe we'll need a combination of face-to-face experiences with donors augmented by a robust, but appropriate, use of online tools. In my article Bananas and Websites, I give an overview of Seth...
What it really takes to successfully fundraise in a recession
Here's a great piece from Lois Lindauer's latest "Development News" email: AHP Study Demonstrates Value of Fundraisers in Recession The Association of Healthcare Philanthropy (AHP) just released results from its 2007 benchmarking survey, which examines nonprofit...
Fundraising Secret #37: Use Powerpoint effectively
I've been through a flurry of bad powerpoint presentations recently. At the last one, the speakers turned their backs to the audience and read the slides word-for-word. I kid you not. Perhaps it was because the words were so tiny none of us could see them. If you're...
Are nonprofit’s helping postpone Alzheimer’s?
Apparently 2009 is going to be the year of learning to delay Alzheimer's. In today's news, work is apparently officially proven to delay Alzheimer's. The equation? 1 year or work = 6 weeks of delay. Earlier this year, I read that drinking strong coffee may reduce the...
Fundraising Secret #36: Keep It Simple
Last week, I had someone pay me a huge, though unintended, compliment when unsubscribing from my email newsletter. She said the content was "far too basic" for her. I was thrilled! I strive to make fundraising simple, basic, and easy to understand. Many of you have...
2009 Nonprofit Technology Conference
This is the time of year when all the nonprofit geeks gather at NTEN's Nonprofit Technology Conference and when the rest of us who feel techincally savvy realize we're probably just geek-wannabes. 🙂 Even if you not in San Francisco, it's very easy to keep up on...
FREE “Ask Without Fear!” Teleclass
Since this month marks the 1 year anniversary of the publication of "Ask Without Fear!", I'm deciding to have a party! On April 28 at 12 noon Eastern Time, I'll be offering a free teleclass on fundraising in today's economy. To join the call, you just need to go to...
A case for Twitter, Facebook, & social media for healthcare fundraisers
I was just on a call with fellow members of the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy folks when someone asked, “Does anyone here use Twitter or Facebook?” It appeared I was the only one using social media for my nonprofit. Many wanted to, but their IT departments...
Managing Assumptions
In the last edition, I mentioned some points taught by Betsy Rigby, Director of Development with Partners HealthCare at the New England Association for Healthcare Philanthropy annual conference in Rhode Island last month. One was the two managment theories,...
Ostrich Mentality: Social Media and Storytelling
The latest edition of FundRaising Success Magazine has a terrific article by Bryan Schoell called Get Your Head Out of the Sand. Here's the begining: People are talking about you online. Ignoring that fact won’t make it go away, so you’d best join in the conversation....
Free “Twitter success” podcast
Last week, I had the privilege of being a panelist on a Twitter seminar hosted by Helping Hands for Coaches. What a spirited conversation! We had people from all over the United States, including the media person for the Phoenix Suns, and a media coach from the UK. I...
Free podcast: Fundraising in a Recession
My grad school, Regent University's School of Global Leadership & Entrepreneurship invited me to do the latest in their Leadership Talks series. The topic? Fundraising in a recession of course! If you have 12 minutes, take a listen! Fundraising in a Recession.
Managing nonprofit employees (and volunteers)
Last week I was at the annual conference for the New England Association for Healthcare Philanthropy. It was a great conference, and I did alot of tweeting. You can see all my NEAHP tweets here. A great session I went to was on managing development staff by Betsy...
Great New Book: The Pollyanna Principles
I have a been enjoying a real treat: Hildy Gottlieb's latest book The Pollyanna Principles. This is a pretty amazing book. But we've come to expect that from Hildy! In The Pollyanna Principles, Hildy moves beyond simply telling how to run a nonprofit. She questions...
3 Twitter habits that irritate me
With all the blog posts I've done on Twitter for nonprofits, you know I'm having a blast with Twitter. I'm connecting with old friends and new ones. I even used Twitter to rewrite a fundraising appeal! But over the last few weeks, I've seen some repeated habits that...
Fundraising Secret #35: Overhead isn’t an issue for wealthy donors
Last fall, the Chronicle of Philanthropy reported on a study of 33 people showed that they understood charities needed to have overhead expenses and were willing to fund them. Granted, 33 people isn't a huge sample. But these weren't necessarily "typical" donors: they...
Generosity
Saw this on Beth Kanter's blog post Generation Generosity. Whether we're in a for-profit business or a not-for profit organization, it's far to easy to focus on scarcity. I think slides like these help us re-center on abundance. Goodness And Happiness - Why Generosity...
Fundraising Secret #34: Ditch your email newsletter?
Last week, the Chronicle of Philanthropy pointed out a story from ThirdSector. In it, President Obama's digital strategist, Thomas Gensemer, called email newsletters "a waste of time." In the article he's quoted as saying: "Email newsletters don't get read, yet they...
Twitter: A Translation Guide
I love Twitter. To help streamline my life, I use Twitter to update my Facebook profile status. Well earlier this week, I posted: RT @rdearborn #SROI @kanter proving she can explain complicated ROI theories and also conquer PPT templates with humorous photos. Three...
Fundraising Secret #33: Include a donation form link in your email fundraising letters
One of the most important things to do in fundraising is make it easy for the donor. If you've listened to my fundraising training Creating Donor Evangelists, you'll remember me saying that "hiding" isn't an effective fundraising strategy. Every communication from you...
A Salute to Ground Hog Day
In a salute to Ground Hog Day, I'm reposting Fundraising Secret #11: Don't Be A Ned. Enjoy! Fundraising Secret #11: Don't be a Ned Click on the image to watch the clip. Does this sound like your fundraising efforts? Ned: Phil? Phil Connors? Phil Connors, I thought...
Fundraising Success #32: Don’t go it alone
True confessions: ten days ago I freaked out. I'm an optimist by nature. You know that "Is the glass half-full or half-empty" question? My standard answer is that it's always full. It's always got something in it: air, liquid, something. I regularly blog in the...
If you’re not on Twitter…
...you should at least be learning about using Twitter for your nonprofit. Check out the volume of tweets during the Inauguration: The green line is last week at the same time. The blue line is this week. Twitter reports up to 5 times as many tweets per SECOND during...
Are we playing God? Economists continue to investigate motivations of donors
The Chronicle of Philanthropy pointed to a report by The Economist on research showing that public recognition may motivate donors to give bigger gifts. Dan Ariely of Duke University, Anat Bracha of Tel Aviv University, and Stephan Meier of Columbia University sought,...
Are you guilting people into giving?
@Philanthropy pointed me to a humor piece in the New Yorker called Looking Forward to Your Check. The invitation to a fictitious fundraising event starts out with: The Benefit Committee wishes to remind all Subscribers that the thrill for those pledging as much money...
Fundraising Secret #31: Clean up your Google profile
2009 looks like it will be a challenging year for fundraising. But people are going to give. It's just a matter if they're going to give to your organization. So one of your goals this year should be to make your nonprofit easy to find. Since more and more people are...
Twitter Webinar January 30!
I'm excited to be giving a webinar with Don Philabaum called Twitter Your Way to Contributions! You may remember, Don as a guest on my Ask Without Fear! Radio Show. He's been a leader in the field of donor relations. Here's some text from the webinar page: Sometimes...