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Bridge 2023: Navigating the Digital Horizon

Navigating the Digital Horizon: My Takeaways from the 2023 Bridge Conference   Liv Tupanjanin, Senior Account Executive, Mal Warwick Donordigital Liv Tupanjanin is an Online Senior Account Executive at Mal Warwick Donordigital, specializing in digital fundraising. Find her on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/livtupanjanin/.   In today’s rapidly evolving world, the intersection of technology and philanthropy has…

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Bridge 2023: Amplifying Nonprofit Fundraising

Bridge 2023: Amplifying Nonprofit Fundraising “Let’s Get Ready to Rumble!” This phrase launched into my mind as I returned to the National Harbor Gaylord Convention Center for a fresh year of Bridge. Thaddeus Bullard, also known as Titus O’Neil in the WWE world, exclaimed this same opening line from the main stage as the surrounding…

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What the Data Tells Us: Biggest Takeaways from 2017

Why would a college professor drive 3 hours each way through DC traffic for a DMAW Wake Up & Learn session? HINT: The answer is a 4-letter word… DATA! That’s right—you say analytics, and I say, “YES, please!” Carol Rhine’s insightful Target Analytics presentation was definitely worth the trip from Salisbury, MD. I’m a firm…

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My 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…

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From 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…

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Identifying 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…

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How 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…

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You Win Some, You Lose More. Don’t’ Let Your Donors Walk Away: Make Retention Your New Acquisition

Did you know that most nonprofits are not currently measuring donor retention on a monthly basis? Do you know why it matters? According to The 2017 Fundraising Effectiveness Project report in 2016, every $100 gained in gifts was offset by $95 in losses through gift attrition. Let that sink in; for every dollar amount you…

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Monthly or Bust: Creating a Sustainer Culture

  On his very first day as membership director, Dane Grams strove to make monthly donors the centerpiece to the Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC) sustainer strategy. Why? Well, as he convinced the HRC development team—and now the audience at the DMAW Lunch & Learn: Sustainer Recruitment and Engagement event—monthly sustainers give the most money over…

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Breaking Through the Noise of an Election

You don’t have to be a political junkie to see that we are right in the middle of one of the loudest, most contentious election seasons we’ve seen in a long time. One has to wonder: how does this election impact our nonprofits? Are our donors being inundated with content? How do you break through…

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