GuideStar Blog

People often ask me how I define a major gift. To me, it’s a gift worth the time and money it takes to cultivate and solicit it.

You can’t build a great building on a weak foundation. You must have a solid foundation if you’re going to have a strong superstructure.”

—Gordon B. Hinkley

The foundation for a strong nonprofit fundraising strategy is building relationships with your donors. By focusing on building relationships, you’ll see better donor retention over time. Better donor retention rates mean a higher lifetime value for your donors, resulting in better return on investment (ROI) for your nonprofit’s donor communications efforts.

All of a nonprofit’s actions are interconnected. If you do something to enhance your fundraising, that action is likely to affect another one of your strategies as well. Therefore, make sure you’re thinking through how one decision will affect each and every one of your strategies.

Seasons Greetings, Gratitude, and Greatness

I don’t ease into personal stories well.  This one, however, resonates at the time of year where we seem to have too much stuff … and too little gratitude. Also, this message is timely since we are all constantly looking to create a greater and more meaningful donation experience for our givers.

A thousand donors were asked by Grey Matter Research to name their very favorite nonprofit. More than half of them named the same 20 organizations, and the top 5 favorites collected votes from more than one-third of all donors. With an average total income of $1.1 billion, America’s favorite 289 nonprofits are massive national and global operations.

As a fundraiser, I’m keenly sensitive to how I act and am treated as a donor. I’ve shared before how last December, I joined the 60 percent of donors who become former donors to the charities they had been supporting. 

What gets in the way of you and your board raising more money?

For a fundraising trainer like me, this is a key question. Any sort of fundraising education must address the barriers that make it difficult for people to participate.

This list of common barriers won’t surprise you. Perhaps you’ve experienced them yourself.

While being prepared for the solicitation meeting itself is important, preparation has to start before you reach out to set up the meeting. There are two reasons for this.

Year after year, campaign after campaign, nonprofits find themselves asking the same old question: why aren’t we seeing healthy retention rates?

I once heard a quote that went something like: “Trust takes years to build, seconds to break, and forever to repair.”

If you’ve ever felt betrayed, this sounds on point. It’s true in life, and it’s true in the nonprofit sector.