Future Fundraising Now

How to get more donations

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by

Jeff Brooks
in

Here are some ways to improve your prospects this year, from John Haydon’s blog: Seven Ways to Increase Your Nonprofit’s Donations in 2013…


  1. Say Thanks
  2. Give Your Supporters Better Tools
  3. Plug up the Holes in Your Website
  4. Make Your Supporters’ Agendas Your Agenda
  5. Constantly Report Outcomes
  6. Develop One Cause Marketing Partnership
  7. Don’t Shoot for Perfect

Four is the center of it all. Once you realize that fundraising is not a process of getting people to join your club, but trying to get people to let you into their club — you’ll start doing a lot of things much more brilliantly.

(I’d take #6 with a grain of salt. You could spend a lot of time trying to bring that to life and never bring in a dollar.)

    Comments

    2 responses to “How to get more donations”

    1. Heather Avatar
      Heather

      Point 1 made me smile – because it’s so easy and yet I am constantly surprised (although why I don’t know after 20 years fundraising) that people still don’t do it. I have lost count of the number of times I’ve asked when the thank you letter was sent or when the follow up at the end of the project/funding went out to be met by a blank stare. Thank people – it’s simple! In fact, it’s the easiest thing on your list but still non-profits quite often don’t do it. Thanks for this – I have shared on Google as an easy to follow, practical, effective list.

    2. Heather Avatar
      Heather

      Point 1 made me smile – because it’s so easy and yet I am constantly surprised (although why I don’t know after 20 years fundraising) that people still don’t do it. I have lost count of the number of times I’ve asked when the thank you letter was sent or when the follow up at the end of the project/funding went out to be met by a blank stare. Thank people – it’s simple! In fact, it’s the easiest thing on your list but still non-profits quite often don’t do it. Thanks for this – I have shared on Google as an easy to follow, practical, effective list.

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    The future of fundraising is not about social media, online video, or SEM. It’s not about any technology, medium, or technique. It’s about donors. If you need to raise funds from donors, you need to study them, respect them, and build everything you do around them. And the future? It’s already here. More.

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    Jeff BrooksJeff Brooks has been serving the nonprofit community for more than 35 years and blogging about it since 2005. He considers fundraising the most noble of pursuits and hopes you’ll join him in that opinion. You can reach him at jeff [at] jeff-brooks [dot] com. More.

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    The future of fundraising is not about social media, online video, or SEM. It’s not about any technology, medium, or technique. It’s about donors. If you need to raise funds from donors, you need to study them, respect them, and build everything you do around them. And the future? It’s already here. More.

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    About the blogger

    Jeff Brooks has been serving the nonprofit community for more than 30 years and blogging about it since 2005. He considers fundraising the most noble of pursuits and hopes you’ll join him in that opinion. You can reach him at jeff [at] jeff-brooks [dot] com.