Posts Tagged ‘fundraising’
Ten Commandments of Copy & Design Part II
You Still Can’t Risk NOT Reading This! (Continuing on with a quick wrap up of DMAW’s Ten Commandments Lunch & Learn featuring Tom Gaffny and Steve Fleshman.) Among the Commandments according to Tom and Steve is NEVER break a multi-page letter with the end of a sentence. Entice the reader to turn the page and…
Read MoreTen Commandments of Copy & Design Part I
You Can’t Risk NOT Reading This! Did you decide to read on? Good. You’re already on your way to improved fundraising results by just knowing these Ten Commandments. (A quick wrap up of DMAW’s Ten Commandments Lunch & Learn featuring Tom Gaffny and Steve Fleshman.) Commandment Number 1 — It’s Not All About YOU! Sorry.…
Read MoreMy direct mail fantasy, and other myths
I’ve found the perfect direct mail donor. Her name is Gladys, and she gives to everything I send her, 100% of the time. But I’m not sharing her with you guys. She’s mine. When Gladys gets a mailing from me, she does exactly what she’s supposed to do. When she sees my piece of…
Read MoreThe Donor Who Keeps on Giving—How Often to Appeal to Your Monthly Givers
At the recent Bridge Conference, I ran into a colleague who asked me the question that many nonprofits grapple with: How often should you ask your existing sustainers for more money? We know that monthly donors are a good source of revenue, but if you aren’t asking for extra gifts during the year, your ‘single’…
Read MoreLights, Camera, Action: Turning Views into Donations
Views and likes are everything nice, but do they really help drive donations and web traffic? According to See3 Communications CEO Michael Hoffman, those likes and views don’t mean much if they don’t turn into action—and that means you have to be reaching the right people. During the DMAW co-hosted webinar “How to Create an…
Read MoreMAXI Madness Strikes Again at National Harbor
It was a star-studded afternoon as Direct Marketing’s top fundraising experts and their guests gathered at the elegant Gaylord National Hotel at Washington D.C.’s National Harbor for the 38th Annual Marketing Awards for eXcellence and Innovation – the MAXIs! The MAXIs have become one of the industry’s most coveted prizes over the years because of…
Read MoreFrom Sacred Cows to Successful Campaigns — Real Life Victories
What happens after you tip your sacred cows? In our previous blogs (one and two), we discussed how to identify your nonprofit’s specific sacred cows — those programs, events, campaigns, and practices that you perform religiously, often because that’s the way it’s always been done. Or sometimes our sacred cows are programs that represent too…
Read MoreIdentifying the Sacred Cows That Are Holding You Back
Let’s say you’re committed to tipping some sacred cows. You are ready to challenge and evaluate everything: your mission, your approach, your revenue. How do you identify your organization’s specific sacred cows? In our first blog of this series, we discussed the various fundraising practices nonprofits perform religiously — often with the only strategy being…
Read MoreHow Do You Tip a Sacred Cow? Strength and Patience.
Einstein defined insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” We all tend to agree with this — but do we as nonprofits put it into practice? Particularly in our fundraising work? Echoing this same sentiment, management expert Tom Northrup once said, “All organizations are perfectly designed to get…
Read MoreFundraisers Face Significant Retention Decline
Retention matters. It is sometimes the greatest—but most profitable—challenge you may face as a fundraiser. And it’s getting harder. That’s why DMAW is hosting a Lunch & Learn to provide a Retention Roadmap—answering your top retention questions and putting you on a path to file growth. For the past 10 years, donor retention has been…
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