A Small Change- Fundraising Blog

I wrote earlier this week about “What’s a Lead” and today I’m going to talk about responding to these leads. When you come back from an event you attended, what do you do with your leads? Does it take months before any of these people ever hear from you again? I’ve f...

Sometimes the difference between a lead and everyone else is just a frame of mind. People connect, volunteer, and donate to your organization because they agree with and believe in what you are doing. I’m surprised by what it takes for someone at some organizations to become a prospect. ...

Outside of a vibrant major gifts program direct mail is probably the number one way to raise money at most organizations. And direct mail will still be a major way to find donors for a long time to come but not forever. It appears that direct mail is on the decline...

Do you ever feel like you can’t get your day to day work done because you’re spending all your time working on agendas? I hate that feeling. I’ve always viewed agendas as a means to an end not the end itself. Meet...

There are a lot of new and brilliant creative and philanthropic successes in the world of business giving. Social enterprise is happening all around us doing tremendous good; Cause marketing is making us think differently about the products we purchase and the partnerships we create with businesses...

I’ve found that it takes me about a year to really get settled into a new organization. I just had my performance review and it was really refreshing to acknowledge that we have found a good working pattern. It takes time to feel comfortable in any job. ...

It seems we often spend a lot of our time trying to keep the many balls we are juggling in the air. I wish it was as easy as simply juggling. Sometimes your challenges are enhanced by difficult staff, volunteers, and donors...

This week’s Featured Fundraiser is Katie Graf. Thanks so much for your insights and words of wisdom! If you ever would like to nominate someone for Feature Fundraiser just send me an email. - Jason What kind of fundraising do you do and who do you do it for? ...

America’s Giving Challenge is one of my favorite online fundraising competitions. Last year the Causes application on Facebook raised over $600,000 for nonprofits during the challenge. ...

As I’m sure you have found this blog can be someone autobiographical at times. I hope you are not getting bored with my journey of learning about fundraising and development. ...

Do you ever find that your work is more than just “fundraising”? Especially in a smaller organization, I am often directly advancing and interpreting the mission through donor solicitations. Th...

Why do we do mail campaigns over personal telephone calls? Almost every nonprofit sends out letters to their donors asking for money. It is a tried and true method and a great way to get support from a large group quickly...

My favorite thing about blogging is reader comments because they challenge me to look at information and opinions from a different perspective. I wrote a post for the Jolkona Foundation and received a thoughtful response for a reader, Bill...

We only have so much time every day as development professionals, so we need to make sure our time is well used. When do you send out a letter, and when do you meet with someone in person...