Out of the Box

I’m going to let you into one of my pet peeves and perhaps, before I’m done, I’ll be picking up Herschel Gordon Lewis’ moniker “Curmudgeon-at-Large.” Really I don’t want to be curmudgeonly but there are things that I’ve run across over the course of more than 30 years raising funds for organizations that I’ve...
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One of the benefits of old age is you get to see a lot over the years.  Having literally grown up in the not-for-profit world, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting people from thousands of organizations. And what’s always amazed me is that there’s one phrase that embodies every single one of these organizations....
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Three donor-building benefits of true personalized communications Ah, personalization!  The direct response fundraising tactic that warms every donor’s heart, boosts response, and makes every appeal seem to the donor as though you are their best friend. Right?  Perhaps — but it’s not so simple. In this day and age,personalization must strive to be just...
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Have you ever wondered what you could say to change someone’s mind or convince them to do something they should but don’t want to?  If you said yes to those questions you probably have dealt with a teenager in your life.  If you haven’t, just wait a few years. All kidding aside.  What is...
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 “Are you nuts? People hate mail.”  That’s the response I often get when I suggest an organization communicate more frequently with their donors.  This is at a time when many organizations are looking for ways to cut down on their mail frequency to donors and prospects.   So why do I suggest that you consider...
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 One of DSA’s “corporate learning” initiatives this year is to offer interested staff the opportunity to participate in a reading & discussion group that will focus on DSA’s eight core values.  We’re in the process of finalizing the list of books we’ll be reading to well represent the substance and spirit behind each of...
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Days 13-19: I think I would present my plan to my supervisor on day 13.  All of my enthusiasm, focus and effort will go a long way toward showing my leadership progress and hope.  Using days 13-19 I would develop specific individual tactics for each of the strategies in my approved plan.  This is...
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Next Steps in Building Lifelong Relationships This is the third and final installment in a series of posts talking about connecting to younger donors.  In the first post I talked about the opportunity to connect with younger donors and in the last post delivered the “beef” behind the idea of lifelong relationships with partners....
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“Where’s the Beef?” For those of you wondering “where’s the proof?” from last week’s blog post I hope you’ll find this week’s post enlightening.  Maybe even Clara Peller would find the “beef” here, too. Well, I think you can find it looking at our colleges and universities. For years they’ve been connecting with alumni...
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As fundraising counsel, that’s a question we get all the time.  And, I suppose, the answer depends on how you define donors.  Now before you accuse me of being like a certain unnamed politician playing games with semantics let me explain. I suspect that when people talk about getting younger donors they are picturing...
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