Sustainer Giving Is Not the Latest Shiny New Thing
You’ve probably heard some consultants say: “It’s not about the next shiny new thing. Rather, it’s about the basics of fundraising and building relationships with donors. It’s about following the best practices first. Only after that’s done — and only then — can you start looking at some of those ‘shiny new things.’” And I totally agree, I’m one of those consultants echoing those sentiments and advice. But it’s important to realize that monthly giving is not the next shiny new thing. It’s been around for decades! Monthly donors,...
read moreMonthly Giving Will Grow in Popularity in the Post-Pandemic Nonprofit
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been able to do some traveling again — in-person client visits, family visits, fun. Sitting on airplanes and in airports means time to read. I never leave home without a fundraising book to enjoy (along with other books, of course). Recently, I read “The Post-Pandemic Nonprofit: 12 Disruptive Trends Your Nonprofit Must Master” by Jeremy Reis. It’s a great and easy read in some 170 pages. It took me about two hours to get through it. I like how Jeremy broke up the book by: who we are, how we operate,...
read moreBook Review of Erica Waasdorp’s ‘Monthly Giving Made Easy’
by Jim Eskin I have to start with a confession: I am a monthly giving convert. As a practitioner, I heard a lot about it at the Association for Fundraising Professionals (AFP) and other professional conferences, and my ears perked up. But when I returned to my development shop, I discussed it with the team and, regrettably, didn’t demonstrate the needed leadership to make a robust and serious commitment to make things happen as they should have. Then, fortunately, paths crossed with Erica Waasdorp, who I like calling the “first lady of...
read more4 Examples of How Things Can Go Wrong With Monthly Gifts
As you may know, I’ve been scanning and tracking examples of monthly giving approaches and follow ups for years. There are so many wonderful ways nonprofits ask for monthly donors. So many tremendous examples of saying thank you in the most grateful of ways. There’s so much that goes right with monthly giving and the results are showing! But every now and then, I see some goofs. I’m not going to name names, but you probably know who you are when you read this. I’m sharing these mistakes because I hope you will not make them in your...
read moreIdentify Potential Monthly Donors Using Data
Donor data has always been important in raising funds for nonprofits. It’s literally your ‘gold.’ It provides you with everything you need to keep track of your donors and know most of what there is to know about them. Especially when it comes to outreach to potential monthly donors. Why is this helpful for outreach to potential monthly donors? For segmentation purposes, which then leads to personalization in email messaging and direct mail appeals. If your data is clean and correct, you can customize every single appeal to a donor. If the...
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