November Giving Carnival 2
The November question for the Giving Carnival is: “What business practices should nonprofits adopt to maximize their resources?” My first answer dealt with having our financial house in order. But there's another wonderful business practice I think nonprofits could...
November Giving Carnival
The November question for the Giving Carnival is: "What business practices should nonprofits adopt to maximize their resources?" Great question! I think a very helpful business practice would be having open books. Donors are used to living in a world of increasing...
How to write a thank you letter
Happy Thanksgiving! Looking for some good quality, inexpensive thank-you cards online, I Googled "Thank You cards." I was pleasantly surprised to find a link to a fantastic article on how to write a thank you note. The key points made be the author Leslie Harpold...
Blogging from Blackbaud
Greetings from Charleston, SC! Here at Blackbaud's Conference on Nonprofits. I got to spend 3 1/2 hours with the amazing fundraising mind of Mal Warwick. I wish I'd had this before I sent my year-end appeal text to the printer. 🙂 I've been at this for more than 10...
Fundraising Secret #6: ALWAYS use a PS
In Fundraising Secret #5: Use Blue Ink, I encouraged you to enhance your direct mail with a simple bit of color. Another oft overlooked tool in fundraising letters is the P.S. Postscripts are so important to fundraising letters, I often tell seminar attendees that...
Media Habits
Nancy Schwartz at the Getting Attention Blog has a terrific post about the .media habits of people aged 12-24 and 25-50. Check read through the summary and see if it can help your fundraising and the way you interact with your donors and pre-donors. I bet alumni...
Don’t mess with us nonprofits!?
This is too odd a tale to be made up. Robbing a nonprofit? An employee of World Relief shooting someone? Especially when World Relief is part of the National Association of Evangelicals? Here's the entire blurb as seen in today's daily by the Chronicle of...
Paying Volunteers?
The Chronicle on Philanthropy had a brief article this week about the growing practice of paying volunteers: Retired People Demand Pay for Volunteering at Charities. Huh? If you pay...doesn't that make them employees? I thought the lack of pay was the primary...
More on the Silver Tsunami
Ellen Goodman has a great editorial on the Al Gore Population. Here's a brief part of the editorial: As a country, we are at the beginning of an enormous transition. Under the old compact, sixtysomethings were supposed to get out of the way and out of work. They were...
The “Silver Tsunami”
Last Monday, Kathleen Casey-Kirschling applied for her Social Security benefits. According to the Reuters, Casey-Kirschling is the first Boomer to apply for Social Security. Why does this matter? The "silver tsunami" has started. Casey-Kirschling may be the first, but...
Make Their Day
This was in our internal "daily" here at Inland Hospital. What a great reminder! FISH! Make Their Day The Pike Place Fish guys make a difference for everyone around them. They “make their day’ by having fun and inviting others to join in. It’s hard for anyone to...
What not to do with email
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?
Good and Bad Fundraising
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.)
Free Ask Without Fear! Bookmarks
Last Friday, I received 1,000 Ask Without Fear! bookmarks! I'd love to give them away to as many people as want them. To get your free, ultra-special Ask Without Fear! bookmark, simply snail mail a self addressed stamped envelope to me at: Marc A. Pitman...
Fundraising Secret #5: Use Blue Ink
The last couple Fundraising Secrets (Nobody owes you anything and You're not begging!) have been quite intense. So I thought I'd take it down a notch with Fundraising Secret #5: Use Blue Ink. If you're in fundraising, you're in the direct mail business. So it would...
Executive Coaching of Nonprofit Executives
Discussions like this just warm my heart! Online Discussion: Executive Coaching A growing number of charity leaders are seeking professional coaches to meet challenges on the job, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports, and two management experts will be available...
Books just want to be free!
Hey, have you heard of BookCrossing.com? It's based on the premise that books yearn to be free. So we get to "release" them into the wild. With the special BookCrosing.com ID (or "BCID" for those in the know), others that find can have it for free and it can log in...
Finally! Google Checkout for Nonprofits
I was thrilled to read this post on the Google Checkout blog: Introducing Google Checkout for Nonprofits. I've been using Google Checkout for my Fundraisingcoach.com Store and for etithing at the Vineyard Church of Waterville and love it! Good job Google!
Title change & winner!
Thank you to all of you who voted (again) on the title of this book. I'm pleased to announce you've helped keep the great parts of the original title and give it more punch! The new title is Ask Without Fear! A Simple Guide to Connecting Donors with What Matters to...
Fundraising Secret #4: You’re NOT “begging”!
I got pretty passionate about last week's blog post about not getting "entitled." I equally passionate about Fundraising Secret #4: you're not begging! Let me repeat that: YOU'RE NOT BEGGING. Fundraisers are not panhandlers. Beggars take money from anyone they can. We...
Direct Mail Facts
Jeff Brooks at the Donor Powered Blog, lists these 7 surprising facts about direct-response fundraising. I use these factoids all the time in my thinking about mailings so I thought I'd list Jeff's 7 here: Blank carrier envelopes usually out-perform envelopes with...
Fundraising Secret #3: Nobody “owes” you anything
[Warning: rant in progress] Hang around me for any length of time and you'll hear me rant about the awful tendency of those of us in nonprofits of getting entitled. Sit in the back office of just about any nonprofit, and you'll here people slip into talk that donors...
Another great testimonial!
Brian Tracy has graciously written this: This short, practical book gives you a series of step-by-step methods to raise more money, faster and easier than you ever thought possible. -Brian Tracy, Author The Psychology Of Selling I can't wait to have this book in...
SquidWho?
Seth Godin is always on the cutting edge of things. He's done it again with squidwho.com. Who needs a "Who's Who" in print when you've got the internet. But it feels weird setting up a page for myself. So in the spirit of Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell, I'll give away...
Odd will
Leona Helmsley's will is causing quite a stir. In addition to leaving millions of dollars to her dog, the NYTimes says it contains nuggets like: To receive money from the trusts, the grandsons are required under the will to visit the grave each year of their father,...
Fundraising Secret #2: Brainstorm Objections
Last time we looked at the #1 fundraising secret: ask! Asking will always be #1. The rest of these fundraising secrets are in no particular order. That being said, the second secret is: brainstorm objections up front. Nine times out of ten, when you ask for money the...
New Book Title?
I've recently become aware of two things about the title of my book The Get R.E.A.L. Guide to Asking for Money: Connecting Donors with What Matters to Them Most. 1. It is really long. 2. The "R.E.A.L." raises spam alerts. Would you help me by voting on keeping this...
Focus on the Top 10
I love ForImpact.org's W.O.W. emails. I read this just after writing yesterday's post Fundraising Secret #1. It definitely fits! Read it and prosper: Last week Tom and I were with a Benedictine prep school in New Jersey. We were discussing the importance of focusing...
Fundraising Secret #1: Ask!
Since many have finished their fiscal year and others that haven't finished are working on budgets for the next fiscal year, I've been pondering things that would make this coming year our best fundraising year yet. I've come up with about 100 secrets, tips, and...
Pushing through the Dip
In the last few posts, we've been gleaning from Seth Godin's latest book, The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick). If you've determined that you can be