The Fundraising Authority

AUGUST 17, 2022

Last week, I was a panelist on an upcoming panel called “The Ins and Out of Grant Writing for Nonprofits” hosted by NXUnite! . I was thrilled to have an opportunity to speak to the work of The Fundraising Authority and my experience in the nonprofit industry. . Want to hear what I (and my fellow panelists) had to say? . View the presentation here. Thank you to NXUnite for hosting and to the team at Nexus Marketing for moderating!

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The Fundraising Authority

DECEMBER 21, 2020

Guest post by Kari Ann Kiel from DoJiggy. Fundraising events provide a great opportunity to bring in funds for your organization, while raising awareness for your cause. However, organizing an event also costs money to produce, as well as resources to manage all the details. Implementing online fundraising software can help you save time and money by more efficiently managing your fundraising event.

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The Fundraising Authority

DECEMBER 16, 2020

Your case for support (sometimes called your “case statement,” a term we will use interchangeably in this article) is one of the most important documents you can write for your non-profit. It forms the basis for all of your donor communications and asks, and provides a valuable resource to everyone who is soliciting donations on your behalf. In this two part series, we’re going to take a look at how to write a strong and compelling case for support for your organization.

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The Fundraising Authority

DECEMBER 18, 2020

In Part I of this article , we talked about the importance of your non-profit case for support (also called a “case statement”). We also looked at which non-profits need written case statements and how they are used. In this part, we’re going to look at the statement itself… including what concepts should go into your case for support as well as the actual process of writing the document.

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The Fundraising Authority

DECEMBER 20, 2020

Many non-profit organizations rely on grants from foundations, corporations, and government agencies to round out their fundraising efforts. If your non-profit is looking for new grant opportunities, here are six tried-and-true places to find them: #1 – Your Board I always start my grant research with my board. They may be helpful, or not, but it never hurts to ask.

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The Fundraising Authority

JANUARY 15, 2021

Thank you letters have long been seen by many fundraisers as “gottados” – one of those things you just “gotta do” to get to the real work of fundraising, like writing newsletters and having lunches with major donors at great restaurants downtown. Many development pros are starting to wake up the fact that thank you letters can be so much more than one-off “gottados.

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The Fundraising Authority

DECEMBER 8, 2020

Guest Post by: Adam Weinger. When you implement donor research in your fundraising strategy, you’ll learn more about your existing donors and spot potential major giving opportunities. But what if you could find out more about potential supporters before they even donate to your nonprofit for the first time? Well, it turns out you can! When you screen potential supporters before they’re even associated with your nonprofit, you won’t waste time on engaging prospects that will just donate once (if

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The Fundraising Authority

DECEMBER 22, 2020

Every non-profit fundraiser is different. We each have different strengths and weaknesses, and we each have our preferred strategies and tactics. And that’s ok – every non-profit is different, each with their own unique development needs… thus, there’s room for almost every type of fundraiser imaginable. What I have noticed, however, is that there are seven key traits that are shared by the most effective development professionals… those who are most likely to meet or exceed the goals laid out b

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The Fundraising Authority

DECEMBER 24, 2020

A few weeks ago, I wrote an article called Prospect. Cultivate. Ask. that detailed the process of moving new prospects from investigating your non-profit to investing in your mission. An astute reader e-mailed me after the article was published to remind me that I forgot one important piece of the puzzle: stewarding donors after they give. Now, like most non-profits, I know about stewarding donors.

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The Fundraising Authority

MARCH 28, 2021

Guest Post by Corbit Harrison from VolunteerHub. Your volunteers are already some of your most committed supporters. You know that this is true, because they are contributing a highly valuable asset: their time. In fact, recent studies show that each volunteer’s time is worth over $23 per hour. Why not ask them to also give financially? Here are three reasons why you should make the ask : #1 – Volunteers Already Understand the Good You Do.

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The Fundraising Authority

AUGUST 6, 2021

Fundraising events are a staple part of non-profit development programs worldwide. Your goal as a fundraiser is to make sure that you are maximizing your events to raise as much money as possible, without wasting valuable time and resources. As you plan your fundraising events large, small and in-between, there are eight fundamental concepts that you should keep in mind to ensure that you are raising as much as possible: #1: Fundraising events are still fundraising.

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The Fundraising Authority

OCTOBER 28, 2021

What happens when your nonprofit uses an A.I. writing assistant for fundraising? You have probably never used an AI writing assistant, but you might want to start. Let me tell you about Fundwriter.ai because this tool has transformed my life as a nonprofit fundraiser, and I believe it will do the same for you… Have you ever been faced with writing something and wished that you had an assistant to do the work for you?

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The Fundraising Authority

APRIL 11, 2021

For most fundraising events , the majority of your money should be raised through sponsorships. Without a strong focus on sponsors, your event will not reach its true potential. If you are setting an ambitious fundraising goal for your event, it will be far easier to reach that goal if you can raise 50%+ of the revenue from large sponsors than if you are trying to raise 100% through individual ticket sales.

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The Fundraising Authority

JANUARY 2, 2021

Like great sales organizations, great development operations need a constant stream of prospects… individuals, companies, and foundations that are, or are likely to be, interested enough in your mission to donate funds to your non-profit. Creating and growing a prospect list is one of the key responsibilities of your fundraising team. Here are eight ways to keep that list growing and working for your school, church, or charity: 1.

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The Fundraising Authority

MAY 8, 2021

It’s no secret that Google Ad Grants is a fantastic resource for nonprofits. However, many eligible people are still unaware of the program and how to use it. In this guide, you’ll find everything you need to know about the Google Ad Grant Program, including eligibility requirements, the application process, and benefits. This post will clarify any questions you might have and help you make the most of your grant!

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The Fundraising Authority

NOVEMBER 20, 2020

When small and midsized non-profits are looking for new fundraising ideas, they are usually given ideas that require a lot of work for only a little return. Things like carwashes, rummage sales, and spare change collections can raise money, but often take a ton of work in return for just a few thousand dollars of fundraising profit. If your charity is looking to raise money from new sources or through new strategies, a wants to maximize return for the time invested, try one of these unusual fun

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The Fundraising Authority

NOVEMBER 20, 2020

I am in the middle of writing a direct mail fundraising letter for a non-profit client, and tomorrow I will be presenting the letter to them, and explaining why it will be effective. And it got me thinking… there are really only three things that separate super-successful fundraising letters from ones that are just mediocre. So I am taking a break from writing the letter to share those three things with you.

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The Fundraising Authority

NOVEMBER 21, 2020

Far too many non-profit fundraisers approach board fundraising as if they have boards full of movers and shakers who know how to raise money, even when that’s not the case. These fundraisers and non-profit managers get annoyed and frustrated with their boards, which doesn’t help anyone, including the organization itself. Acting like your board is something it isn’t doesn’t help, and only leads to constant turnover and frustration.

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The Fundraising Authority

NOVEMBER 21, 2020

As development professionals, volunteers, and board members, we spend a lot of time searching for new prospects … trying to find new individuals, companies and foundations who might respond to our message, who we can cultivate, and who, over time, might make a significant gift to help us continue our work. Prospecting can be time-consuming, and can often be disheartening, if we have trouble finding and cultivating new leads.

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The Fundraising Authority

NOVEMBER 22, 2020

How serious is your non-profit about your fundraising efforts? Depending on the size of your organization, here are some things to think about: For Small Non-Profits…. If you run a small non-profit organization (many churches and schools also fit this category), how much time, per week, is your staff dedicating to fundraising? Are you out there doing prospecting and building a fundraising pipeline?

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The Fundraising Authority

NOVEMBER 23, 2020

Have you heard about Giving Tuesday (or, as most people write it, #GivingTuesday)? It’s a noble effort by those in our profession to transform the holiday season from take, take, take to take, take, give. (For some of the hoopla, see here , here and here ). The idea is that everyone shops in person on Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving, for those of you not in the US), everyone shops online on Cyber Monday (the Monday after Black Friday), so why not try to get people to give some of what

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The Fundraising Authority

NOVEMBER 26, 2020

We all know how important the final 4-6 weeks of the calendar year are for non-profit fundraising. According to Charity Navigator , mid-sized non-profits may see up to 40% of their total yearly contributions come in between the Thanksgiving Holiday (in the US) and the New Year! You may have seen my post about #GivingTuesday , where I outline why a single-day strategy for year-end giving is a mistake.

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The Fundraising Authority

NOVEMBER 28, 2020

Last week, we started a three article series on year-end fundraising. The first part described why donors give during the year-end giving season. In this post, I want to talk about the strategy behind raising more money during the final 4-6 weeks of the year. In our next post , we’ll go over a step-by-step plan for maximizing your year-end fundraising.

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The Fundraising Authority

DECEMBER 3, 2020

The end of the calendar year can (and should) be a bonanza for non-profit organizations looking to raised small and medium-sized gifts to round out their fundraising numbers. Whether your non-profit works on a fiscal or a calendar year, most “regular folks” in the work-a-day world work on a calendar year, and make a significant portion of their yearly donations at the end of the year.

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The Fundraising Authority

DECEMBER 4, 2020

Is there any more depressing word in the fundraiser’s lexicon than “no”? It means all of your efforts, research, and cultivation will not be resulting in a gift from this prospect. Often, it means explaining to your boss, or to a referring board member, that no, you were not able to secure a donation, and no, the donor does not want to think about it… they outright declined.

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The Fundraising Authority

DECEMBER 4, 2020

Welcome to the third and final article in our three-part series on year-end fundraising. In our first post , we took a look at why so many donors give during the final 4-6 weeks of the year. In the second post , we reviewed the five rules for supercharged year-end fundraising. Today, we’re going to look at a step-by-step plan for increasing year-end giving at your non-profit.

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The Fundraising Authority

DECEMBER 5, 2020

Recently, I’ve encountered a phenomenon among development staffs and non-profit executive directors that seems to effect organizations both large and small. It causes non-profits to raise less money than they could, while expending far more energy and effort than necessary. Likewise, it wastes precious dollars in the fundraising budget in return for very little gain.

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The Fundraising Authority

DECEMBER 5, 2020

It’s almost the year-end giving season, and most non-profits I know are getting ready to reach out to their donors to ask for one more donation before the end of the year. As well they should… a very high percentage of all charitable gifts are made during the year-end fundraising cycle. If you want to know how to run an amazing year-end fundraising campaign (both online and offline) for your organization, check out our three part series How to Do Year-End Fundraising the Right Way.

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The Fundraising Authority

DECEMBER 8, 2020

Almost every non-profit organization wants to find new prospects to keep their donor funnel full. Without new prospects coming into the pipeline, there won’t be anybody to cultivate, you won’t be able to make any asks, and ultimately, your events, direct mail, and fundraising campaigns will fail. Simply put, your organization needs to be constantly finding new prospects and putting them into your cultivation system.

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The Fundraising Authority

DECEMBER 10, 2020

The tactical strategy for your fundraising should not be random, and it shouldn’t be based on a “we’ll figure this out as we go along” mentality. Your best bet to ensure maximum revenue is to lay out a tactical fundraising calendar as part of your overall fundraising plan. A tactical calendar, as its name suggests, is simply a calendar that shows when your non-profit will employ each of the fundraising tactics it is planning to use in a given year.

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The Fundraising Authority

DECEMBER 10, 2020

I like fundraising events. I’ve managed (literally) hundreds of them during my fundraising career, from $500,000 galas to $10,000 hosted events and everything in between. Heck, I’ve even written a handbook on a certain kind of fundraising event. So… I’m not one of those “fundraising events aren’t worth the effort” snobs. Still, it makes me cringe when I’m talking with a non-profit about some fundraising difficulties they are having, or some new program they want to launch, and everyone agrees

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The Fundraising Authority

DECEMBER 11, 2020

In Mastering Online Fundraising , our class for non-profit fundraisers, we talk a lot about how small changes to your online fundraising strategy can result in major returns, including new prospects, new event attendees, and of course, new donors. Today, I want to present three quick and easy tactics you can immediately implement in your online activities that could easily double your online fundraising revenue over the coming year: 1.

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The Fundraising Authority

DECEMBER 13, 2020

Last night, I was watching an old episode of The Office (US version) that brought a common non-profit problem to mind. In this episode , Michael is getting chided (over the phone) by the corporate office for spending too much money holding office parties. After listing a number of events the Scranton branch has hosted over the past year, the voice on the other end of the line say, incredulously, “You held a tsunami-relief fundraiser that lost money…” To which Michael replies,

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The Fundraising Authority

DECEMBER 15, 2020

As fundraisers, we often focus on planning and tactics: what five things are we going to do to raise $200,000 this year? How are we going to shift our direct mail strategy to find more mid-level donors? What’s our social media fundraising plan ? Tactics are important. Strategy is important. We can’t ignore them: that’s why much of our article archive is dedicated to writing your plan, tweaking your strategy, and implementing tactics that work.

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The Fundraising Authority

DECEMBER 30, 2020

Charity events are a popular form of fundraising. While they can be great money makers for an organization, they can also be time consuming and expensive. The success of charity events depends on careful planning. To help you ensure that your fundraising event is a winner, here are ten major components that you must incorporate into your event plan, regardless of the specific fundraising event ideas you use: 1.

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