Successful fundraising depends on a partnership between your nonprofit and your donors. The partnership is created by your fundraisers. Your board also has a significant but indirect role to play in creating the partnership.
The success of any partnership depends on all sides cooperating. In the case of a nonprofit there are three key components […]
Every nonprofit can have generous donors. The precursors are having engaged donors and a culture that supports the mission, encourages engagement, and recognizes the value of donors.
A low percentage of donors are engaged (typically less than half). Since engagement is an important precursor to generosity, increasing donor engagement has the potential to be beneficial […]
Passionate donors want to be engaged in your mission. When they are engaged, their generosity and loyalty increase.
Just starting the cultivation process with a donor will make them more engaged. Starting the process tells the donor they are important. Donors want to know they are important to your mission and clients because your […]
Donor cultivation starts after you meet a prospective donor and are confident they want to know more about your nonprofit. This is the same model you use when cultivating a long-time donor.
Start with an open-ended question about your clients, mission, the last story in your newsletter, or something else related to your nonprofit, mission, […]
Here are five things you can do as part of your cultivation to increase donor engagement:
Clarity – Donor generosity depends on donors having a clear idea of what their gifts will do. If your donors are disappointed by what their gifts accomplish, there are two possibilities. One is to provide your donors with a […]
Some donors prefer to make designated gifts because they want their gifts to help solve a specific problem. They regard overhead and other expenses to be unrelated to the problem or the solution. However, if every donor adopts that method of driving effectiveness, every nonprofit would be forced to close because of a lack of […]
Donors want a clear and compelling reason to fund your mission. You must be clear about what you want, why their help is needed, and why their gifts will be effective.
When executives and fundraisers are asked why their nonprofits exist they respond with a simple but unclear answer. You might hear something like, “We […]
After a recent hurricane, a nonprofit gathered some volunteers and supplies and replaced the exterior surface of a homeowner’s roof to eliminate leaks and allow the owner to continue to live there. It is important to note that before replacing the exterior surface of the roof, the volunteers reported to the nonprofit that the house […]
Every donor and volunteer should be cultivated. However, some donors should be cultivated more than others.
Since 80% of the funds come from 20% of a nonprofit’s donors, it is tempting to think that 20% deserve 80% of the cultivation. When one of the 20% reaches their capacity to give, intense cultivation is unlikely to […]
Is your mission’s brand the same as the brand your services create?
The strength of your nonprofit’s brand depends on two things. One is how well the promises of your mission statement are aligned with the solution your services deliver. The second is the robustness of your solution. The generosity, loyalty, engagement, and speed of […]
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