A reader wrote: “I know of an organization where the donor gave restricted funds, i.e., funds specified for a certain program, that the nonprofit agreed to. “The nonprofit has been giving regular reports to the donor, along with achieved outcomes, but the donor suddenly insists that she wants all of her money back. “I’ve never …
Finance/
Financing & Loans
A Simple Grant Proposal is Better…. When your grant proposal is being evaluated by a government agency, reviewers rely on a mental toolbox of rapid and simple techniques to score your application. How you write/design the proposal must be as persuasive as possible, and must help reviewers gather information quickly and effortlessly. Use the principles …
Hopefully, over the last two weeks, you haven’t been cold calling, cold writing, sending “surprise” invitations or making “cold” visits to people who may or may not have been major gifts prospects. With that in mind, we’ll finish making the distinction between a “large” gift and a “major gift.” If the person who suggested the …
“Cool” isn’t a fundraising strategy A client asked me last week if their organization should start putting QR codes on their direct mail envelopes. “Yes,” I answered, “…when you’re ready for that.” For the vast majority of nonprofits dabbling in online fundraising, there are at least ten other things you should be working on ahead …
Hoping that, between last Tuesday and today, you haven’t used the four illustrations of bad fundraising techniques, we continue with the theme/intent of this three-part posting. Once in a while, the response to the cold Letter, the cold Call, the Invitation (out of the blue) or the Visit (not preceded by the appropriate education and …
In our definition, we suggest that, no matter its size, unless a gift met certain parameters, it wasn’t “major.” We emphasize the requirement that the process that obtained the gift had to be based on a plan/strategy that included face-to-face cultivation and solicitation components, and that the gift had to significantly help in attaining fundraising …
What does every prospector need to “hit the mother lode?” A good map!! And prospecting for foundation funding is no different. Here’s the good news: with a couple of key tools, you can create your own map to lead you to some very good sources of funding. The two that top my list are annual …