Ten Things to Do Today to Get Business
Here in the US, we're about a week away from Thanksgiving. Have you mentally checked out of work or are you preparing for the biggest time of giving in the calendar year? Before you put your work on hold, consider implementing this tip from Jeffrey Fox's book How to...
Help Needed: X-treme Fundraising?
Greetings! I got a call from a Time magazine reporter asking if I knew of any "x-treme" fundraising: 30,000 bike trips, bungee jumping for dollars, and the like. I didn't--and wasn't really sure how these could make money--but I told him I'd ask the blog and email. Do...
Thanks for your feedback!
Thanks to everyone that attended my Blackbaud sessions. I just received this email: -----Original Message----- From: Ashley Shockley Sent: Thursday, November 09, 2006 10:51 AM Subject: Blackbaud Conference - Top ten speakers! Congratulations! You were voted one of...
Ask Yourself
I've long been an advocate of PYITS: put yourself in their shoes. (I've blogged about it here, here, here, and here.) But during the Q & A portion of my "Taking the Fear Out of Face to Face Solicitation" seminar last week at Blackbaud's Conference for Nonprofits,...
What’s Your Score Today?
It's easy to "keep score" in our field. We can track dollars raised, new donors acquired, donors retained, etc. But all of these are sort of rearview mirror, views of how you did in the past. Have you ever wondered where the windshield is? In Jeffrey Fox's idea in How...
Blackbaud Conference for Nonprofits
I'm getting really excited about next week's conference! Download a PDF copy of the sessions here.
Y’all are so nice!
I've finally got around to putting up a page with more of the nice things you all are emailing me. I haven't decided where to link it at fundraisingcoach.com yet but the direct link is: https://fundraisingcoach.com/testimonials.htm Thanks so much for letting me know...
Babysitting & Fundraising
No, I'm not going to talk about how much donor relations is like baby sitting--despite how similar they may feel at times! *grin*Â In reading Jeffrey Fox's How To Become a Rainmaker, he devotes a short chapter to advice given to a babysitter. I found it to be helpful...
The Kingdom Assignment
Here's an interesting philanthropy experiment: what happens when you give 100 people $100 dollars? Some of them revolutionize their worlds. Check out the Chronicle of Philanthropy article here.
More on non-events
Cher Hersrud of the The Resource Center in Fargo, ND posted these ideas to the CharityChannel CharityTalk list. (Posted with her permission.) A couple of examples of the non-event from North Dakota: a theatre sold tickets for a Dark Night - people stayed home, the...
Objections or objectives
Another great tidbit in Jeffrey Fox's "How to Become a Rainmaker": The Rainmaker always turns a customer objection into a mutual--customer/Rainmaker--objective. Let's say a donor says, "Gee, I'd love to make a $25,000 gift to the campaign but both my kids are in...
Are you registered?
Amy Kincaid at Fundraising Breakthroughs just posted on a creative fundraising strategy. At least they're thinking out of the box! Would this work for you?
Donor motivation
As much as you may try, ultimately, you may never know what really motivates a donor to give to you. Check out what motivated this donor to give $6 million to the Los Angeles Opera at Jeff Brook's Donor Power Blog. It's certainly not about the money. A trip from LAX...
More thoughts on Rainmaking
Last time, we looked at a concept in the book How To Become A Rainmaker by Jefferey Fox. In that book, he say's the "Killer Sales Question #1" is Do you have your appointment calendar handy? What a great question. According to Fox, this results in an appointment more...
Conference for Nonprofits
The lovely folks at Blackbaud have asked me to do two seminars. If you're coming to Conference for Nonprofits in South Carolina this October 22-25, you can find me doing "Creating Donor Evangelists" on Monday and "Asking For Money: Taking the Fear out of Face-to-Face...
Have you thought of a non-event?
We've had an interesting discussion on the AHP email list on holding "non-events," events that raise money but don't have any real event. Rodger Wetzel from ND gave these great suggestions: One example: A Non-event Send out invitations that say something like: (Your...
Example of using stories
In my decade or so of doing fundraising, I don't ever remember having a community member tell me they really liked a fundraising letter I sent them. This summer it happened! Someone at the gym I go to told me how much they enjoyed the letter they'd just received....
Thoughts on Rainmaking
We've spent the last few issues of Extreme Fundraising looking at the importance of story. While reading Jeffrey Fox's "How to Become a Rainmaker" I recently read a question that will help you tell your story. Right at the beginning of the book he says: Always Answer...
Who’s Telling Good Stories?
A few weeks back, a reader asked me for examples of organizations that told their stories well. I drew a blank. Do you know of any groups that you think are telling their story well? Let me know by making a comment to this blog post. One group that is incredibly...
Another job opportunity: Cape Cod
Here's another great looking job opportunity that's come across my desk: Cape Cod Healthcare Foundation Senior Development Officer (Major Gifts) Hyannis, MA Summer 2006 NATIONAL SEARCH Cape Cod Healthcare Foundation (CCHF) is seeking a talented, senior fundraising...
Quick Survey UPDATE
WOW! I'm excited about the enthusiasm you're expressing for this upcoming course!! Thank you all for the quick response to my Fundraising Master Mind survey. Unfortunately, I wasn't clear on the first question. I'm trying to see what course you think would be the most...
Help Needed: Quick Survey
Greetings from Maine! I'm looking at starting a very special Fundraising Coach Master Mind Group next January. This group would be limited to 12 participants. Through weekly calls, we'll focus on a specific fundraising or nonprofit management topic. Over the weeks,...
Fundraising in the Bible
For the first time ever, my ongoing article on Fundraising in the Bible is available in web format. Web pages: https://fundraisingcoach.com/bible.htm PDF version http://www.scribd.com/doc/5985940/Fundraising-in-the-Bible-A-look-at-some-fundraising-stories-in-the-Bible...
Poor service? You’re busted
Check out Jeff Brook's post on poor service: Donor Power Blog: Poor service? You're busted. Great links to a scary (but believable) call to AOL and a Comcast tech guy asleep on a couch on hold with his own tech support! But then check yourself, is your nonprofit...
A good time to throw stones
A few weeks ago, I reported on a a href="https://fundraisingcoach.com/2006/06/27/whos-telling-your-storywhos-telling-your-story/ ">talk by Andy Goodman on the importance of story. A few days ago, one of you posted this comment to that post: I recently found your site....
The word that can destroy your marketing
Check out the great post The word that can destroy your marketing over at the Donor Power Blog. I'll give you a hint: the word is one letter long. What do you think it is?
Career Change?
This just came across my desk. Hope it's helpful! EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, VIRTUA HEALTH FOUNDATION _________________________________________________________ Virtua Health is South Jersey’s leading community-based, not-for-profit healthcare provider servicing residents of...
End of your year?
June 30 is the end of the fiscal year for many of you. How are you going to set goals for next year? If you haven't already tried the MagnetGoals Goal Setting program, why not do it now? It's free and powerful. You can subscribe to the e-course by going to the bottom...
Who’s Telling Your Story?
A few months ago, I attended "Meet the Funders" conference hosted by the Maine Philanthropy Center. The highlight for me was the keynote address by Andy Goodman on storytelling. If you ever are able to hear him speak, I highly recommend it! He persuasively explained...
We’re not as rational as we think we are
Here's an interesting article from the New York Times: Investing in Good Deeds Without Checking the Prospectus. How could this affect your fundraising? Especially since we all think we're being rational... [I received this on a very helpful daily email of philanthropy...