Archive for the ‘ Lean Development ’ Category
Your Fundraising Plan Checklist
Here is a Fundraising Plan Checklist that you can use every time you start a new appeal, campaign, event, or grant proposal. How much do we want to raise? Are you going to try to raise $3,000 with your annual report? Are you going to try to raise $20,000 with an event? What is a [...]
6 Tips for Making Your Fundraising Program Better
3. Master the art of continuous improvement even in the face of set-backs, which are inevitable.
Teaching other people how to fundraise
Are you the lone development person, or even part of a small team? What is one of your biggest problems? If you answered “Capacity” I think you’d be right. How can you build your capacity to raise more money? Well, you can’t put more hours in the day, and you can’t hire more people. Budgets [...]
20 Money Saving Tips for Fundraisers

3. Batch your fundraising appeal letters. Send out 150 at a time. Test out different messages, graphs, charts, quotes, pictures, see what works with who. This way you can avoid an appeal letter that bombs.
Are You Fundraising in a Small Shop?
If you are fundraising in a small shop, I salute you. It is hard. You come to work and often receive no kudos or respect for what you do. I want you to know that I know what you’re going through. And I appreciate that you take a small part of your limited time to read this.
Myth of the Naked African Child: When Your Donations Hurt
One thing I learned when I was volunteering at nonprofits overseas is that people don’t necessarily need what you think they need.
Shut your Facebook: 3 tips for a digital detox
How many hours per day do you spend online? How many minutes per day do you text? How much time do you spend looking at a blinking screen? Are you totally productive for all of this time, or is there some time when you’re just wasting time? How do you feel when you’re wasting time? [...]
Volunteering. What's in it for you?
Do you get to do things you like to do, when you volunteer? Or do you feel taken advantage of?
Your Overhead is In Your Head. All of the money is going to the cause.
So, you’re talking to a donor and the first thing they want to know is: How much of this donation goes to the cause?
This has become the only standard by which a nonprofit is judged deserving on funds. And this is truly sad.












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