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4 “Secret” Fundraising Strategies You’ll Wish You Learned Years Ago

Bequests and Legacies, Major and Mid Value Donors, Monthly Giving, Stewardship, Strategy
Do you ever wonder why big nonprofits are big? Is it luck? Longevity? A mega-donor or two? Those things are great, but they aren’t the whole secret. The difference is strategy. Here’s the first surprise about that: the strategies that…
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pop art hamster wheel

Is Your Fundraising Career Like a Hamster Wheel? Jump off Now and Start Making Progress

Bequests and Legacies, Major and Mid Value Donors, Monthly Giving
You don’t need me to tell you: Fundraising is hard work. It’s also repetitive. An annual cycle that repeats and repeats and repeats. Sometimes it can make you wonder if you’re really making any progress. Don’t get me wrong –…
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This Breakthrough in Donor Surveys Can Unlock a Treasure Trove of Bequests

Bequests and Legacies
It may sound unbelievable… Right now, you have donors who are ready to include your organization in their will. They want to leave a legacy that changes the world for future generations. And they’re just waiting for you to ask!…
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Do I Still Love Premiums!? (2022 update added)

Direct Mail, Bequests and Legacies, Major and Mid Value Donors, Monthly Giving
Are premium direct mails still pulling their weight in donor acquisition? Direct mail, and in particular, premium direct mail, provided the largest source of new ‘one-off’ donors in Australia and New Zealand in 2016.  Also, direct mail is also the…
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Pop Art African elderly woman pointing finger

Why It’s So Hard to Get Charitable Bequests for Your Organization

Bequests and Legacies
Imagine this: You have a handful of donors who are willing to give you some very large donations. Most of them are not major donors, but they could give you donations averaging more than $30,000. And up. In some cases,…
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Pop Art Busy woman multitasking

How to Transform Your Fundraising from a Merry-Go-Round to a Journey

Bequests and Legacies, Major and Mid Value Donors, Monthly Giving
You’ve probably felt this: Year after year, campaign after campaign, you work so hard to do great fundraising. Sometimes it goes great! 😃 Sometimes things don’t work very well. 🙁 You have amazing years and difficult years. 😃 🙁 😃…
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Is this a Good Time or a Terrible Time for Bequest Fundraising?

Bequests and Legacies
One of the more surprising outcomes of the COVID-19 crisis is a surge in people updating their Wills. Several online Will sites have reported twice the normal volume of people creating or updating their Wills. Well, it makes sense, according…
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An Integrated Multichannel Fundraising Campaign Is Easier Than You Think

Here’s One Easy Tool That Transforms Your Fundraising

Bequests and Legacies, Major and Mid Value Donors, Monthly Giving
Suppose I told you there’s a fundraising tool you (yes you!) can put to work that will do these things: Gather information on what motivates your best donors to give, so you can speak more personally and relevantly to them.…
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VIDEO: The Amazing “4-S” Method for Nervous Bequest Fundraisers

Bequests and Legacies
In this quick video interview, Professor Russell James, Professor of Charitable Financial Planning at Texas Tech University, shares the “4-S” Method of engaging with donors about bequest giving: Story Story Story Shut up Following this method can make the most…
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How to Lose $17 Million Without Even Trying

Bequests and Legacies
It’s incredibly difficult to be smart about opportunity cost. There’s just something in our brains that push us toward bad decisions that cost us dearly. When we overcome that innate human shortcoming — that’s when we make amazingly smart decisions…
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