I have been very encouraged lately by many of my colleagues in the fundraising and philanthropy field. Last month, the Association for Fundraising Professionals’ DC Chapter kicked off its newly revived Diversity Committee activities with a lovely reception where I met lots of nonprofit fundraisers of color who were all more than willing to share [...]
5 Ways to Keep the Love Alive With Your Donors
Just what are fundraisers supposed to be doing in between writing grant proposals and direct mail for new donors and grantmakers? Why maintaining our existing funding sources, of course! As in a marriage, the relationship doesn’t end with the wedding. It has to be continually and nurtured so that no one requests a divorce. In [...]
Getting (Inter)Personal at the Fundraising School
I just returned to DC from Indianapolis, home of the fabulous Fundraising School, part of the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. I was there for a 2-day training on Interpersonal Communication for Fundraising, The crux of the course was based on being able to discern different behavorial and communication styles based on the DiSC [...]
Foundation Research for Fundraising Success – Part Three
OK, back to foundation research. This post concludes the three-part foundation research series I began last month. This last post will focus on the work you need to do after the research phase to ensure that you have the best chance of getting the grant. If the first thing I learned was that fundraising research [...]
Foundation Research for Fundraising Success – Part Two
Earlier this week, I talked about the importance of a fundraiser’s commitment to active, ongoing research on potential funders. In the beginning, the background work of foundation research may seem tedious and unduly time-consuming, but in the end it’s definitely more beneficial to send appropriate requests to fewer grantmakers and foundations than to send a [...]
Foundation Research For Fundraising Success – Part One
“Raising money without conducting research is like trying to build a house without blueprints.” – Harvey McKinnon, Canadian Fundraiser Imagine for a moment that you are a new fundraiser in your first week of work at a small nonprofit. Your first goal, as articulated by your esteemed executive director, is to increase revenue from foundations [...]
