Donor generosity is astounding
When we entered the pandemic lockdown here in the United States, nonprofits were rightly concerned about potentially plummeting donations. Those of us who'd been in fundraising through disasters and economic downturns, knew there'd be an initial spike in giving. But...
3 ways for board members to fundraise even when stuck at home
The pandemic continues to change the way we've always done things. What if you're a board member who's stuck at home? How can you support your nonprofit's fundraising? 3 Ways to Help Your Nonprofit Fundraise in a Pandemic People are still being generous. They are...
Shifting focus in crowdfunding
This week, international crowdfunding expert Anita Gallagher came to The Nonprofit Academy to teach us the latest trends on successful crowdfunding. The shift in messaging may surprise you. Appealing to the Head or Heart? For a long time, nonprofit fundraisers have...
12 tips for fundraising during the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic
With more and more countries, states, and cities enforcing at-home isolation and the financial markets falling, fundraising is definitely harder. But of the worst things I kept hearing from clients was "We don't think this is the right time to ask for money." My...
Avoid the 3 Biggest Mistakes of Fundraising in a Recession
The media is full of stories about how this Covid-19 coronavirus is impacting the economy. Gatherings are getting canceled. People are self-quarantining. And donors who are freaking out watching their investments shrink. Last month, I shared some ideas on fundraising...
Leadership tensions in fundraising
Leaders are an amazing group. They regularly tackle issues no one else is willing to. And, in the midst of being pulled apart by multiple interest groups, they figure out which priorities to focus on. Leadership is not for the faint of heart! Add to that the tensions...
Fundraising in an age of coronavirus (Covid-19)
If you’re one of my private coaching clients, you’ve already heard me ask: what preparations are you making for the possibility that your fundraising event might be canceled due to the coronavirus (now officially called Covid-19)? The numbers of coronavirus seem to...
Donor Data: 5 Data Tips for More Efficient Fundraising
Each and every interaction your nonprofit has with supporters comes with a data point. Whether that’s an opened email newsletter, a social media comment, or the many digital donations made during your year-end fundraiser, these interactions provide a wealth of...
5 Ways to Keep Motivation After the Year-End Giving Season
There’s no denying that year-end giving is a powerful force. After all, some reports suggest as much as one-third of all annual giving occurs in December alone! However, once the final numbers are calculated and the year-end campaigns end, what happens then? You’ve...
![[Guest Post] Expanding Your Money Mindset](https://cdn.fundraisingcoach.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/02225651/AJW-Headshot-crop-400x250.png)
[Guest Post] Expanding Your Money Mindset
Changing the way you think about money is a vital key to becoming successful at fundraising. In this guest post, Andrea Waltz points out an important area for us to address. Andrea is the author of "Go for No! Yes is the destination, No is how you get there" - an...
Book review – 10 Simple Fundraising Lessons
One of the joys of being a speaker and executive coach is that people send me their books. I have such a long reading list, that I usually take a l-o-n-g time reading the ones that are sent to me. I'm glad I didn't wait to read Jim Eskin's. (It definitely helped that...
7 Donation Page Strategies That Actually Convert
Over the past few years, charitable giving has evolved with online donations rising as its new star. If you’re not including a digital giving option by now, your organization is almost certainly missing out. According to Nonprofits Source, online giving has seen...
A surprising way to better fundraising
Improving fundraising is a never-ending quest for nonprofit leaders. But recent research shows a startling discovery on how to make your fundraising better. In "The Wake Up Call," researchers Dr. Adrian Sargeant and Harriet Day researched leadership styles and their...
Get over your discomfort and politely ask for money
I recently tweeted "your discomfort with asking is getting in the way of a donor's joy in giving. So get out of the way!" (Click here to tweet that.) Since then, I've been getting a lot of questions about how to get over the discomfort! How to politely ask for money...
7 Strategies to Power Your Year-End Fundraising
The final two months of the year are a vital time for nonprofits to reach their fundraising goals. Not only do these months hold the biggest fundraising day of the year for nonprofits (Giving Tuesday), but this trend of increased giving continues through December...
Impact Storytelling – translating data to action
Today I was honored to give a webinar with CiviCore on data and impactful stories. I shared one researcher's experience with stumbling on to a form of a story. Then look at studies about using statistics in fundraising versus not using any statistics. We saw images...
![[Guest Post] The Recipe for Nonprofit Committee Failure](https://cdn.fundraisingcoach.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/02225725/kim-donahue.jpg)
[Guest Post] The Recipe for Nonprofit Committee Failure
Today's guest post is from Kim Donahue. Kim is the resident governance expert at Boardable. In a fun tongue-in-cheek tone, she shares a perfect formula for making sure your board committees don't work! And she knows. With over 30 years of nonprofit experience, Kim was...
Be strategic and curious – not a jerk
Did you read the "Outspoken Donor" article in a recent Chronicle of Philanthropy? I didn't like it very much. But some of the donor's experiences with fundraisers are chilling. For example, she says: "Development officers sometimes think that because you gave money to...
Fundraising with an eye to the future
In nonprofit fundraising, the constant pressure to raise more with fewer resources can be so all consuming that we forget to step back and look at future trends. To help us break out of that, we recently had fundraising futurist Trista Harris in The Nonprofit Academy....
#GivingTuesday 2019: How to Build A Successful Fundraising Campaign
The holiday season inspires a certain sense of altruism. Around the world, it’s a season of giving thanks — and often a time for paying this thankfulness forward, too. No day embodies this more than #GivingTuesday, held on the first Tuesday following Thanksgiving....
How to effectively interact with donors
So many fundraising problems can be solved by interacting with donors. Getting to know them. Asking about their interests. Learning their stories. I call it "seeing donors in their natural habitat." But if you've had years and years of only focusing on your nonprofit...
3 steps for less stress in fundraising for the next six months
Do you feel it? The airports and highways are filled with last minute vacation seekers. Back to school supplies are flying off shelves. The school buses are doing practice runs. It's almost the fall. For whatever reason, people seem to "settle in" to a more regular...
What Nonprofit leaders need to know about the brain
Nonprofit work is stressful. So often we go about our work without realizing the effects of that ongoing stress on our brains. But Jessica Sharp does. The founder of Sharp Brain Consulting, Jessica helps leaders and the people they serve. Here she gives insights into...
Giving headlines should grab your attention, but not for the reasons you think
Private coaching clients have been emailing me the doom and gloom articles on the latest Giving USA report. Giving was up about $3 billion but when adjusted for inflation, giving was down in 2018. This should grab our attention. But not for the reasons you think. In...
Why you should come to the Nonprofit Storytelling Conference? Alumni tell you.
Wondering why you should come to this year's Nonprofit Storytelling Conference? I could share why I think you should. It's an event like none I've ever been able to be part of. But as a co-producer of the conference, you'd expect me to say that. So here are some...
![[Guest Post] Using your data to build real relationships](https://cdn.fundraisingcoach.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/02225752/jamie-street-_94HLr_QXo8-unsplash-compass1800w-400x250.png)
[Guest Post] Using your data to build real relationships
Today's guest post is from Neon One's Tim Sarrantonio. He's a fundraiser, a database whiz, and regular conference speaker. A more complete bio comes after this article. You can see his most recent thoughts GIFs on Twitter @midwesttgs How to use data to build authentic...
Are your donors missing the picture?
When you send an email, are your donors missing the picture? Seriously. Many may not have images automatically open. So all you get it a weird blank space. And possibly some words. Those words are the "alt" text. When you add an image to an email or web page, most...
Nonprofit Academy Lifetime 2019 Membership Special!
Leading and funding a nonprofit is surprisingly hard. You got into the work to do good. But others don't see it as quickly as you do. On top of that, nonprofit work can be isolating. As they rise, leaders find fewer and fewer people to confide. And fundraisers?...
Why your fundraising stories don’t work
During my time as a leadership and fundraising coach, I've helped thousands of nonprofit leaders clarify their fundraising stories. Nearly all make the same mistake: they forget the audience - the donors. Take hospitals for instance. Have you ever asked hospital...
![[Question Marc] What is a good voicemail script for fundraising?](https://cdn.fundraisingcoach.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/02231313/questionmarc.jpg)
[Question Marc] What is a good voicemail script for fundraising?
QUESTION: What should I do when I call potential donors but only reach their voicemail? Should I leave a message? If yes, whats a good "script." MY ANSWER: Great question. Years ago, the norm was to not leave a voicemail the first couple times. Only maybe on the third...