FundRaiser Blog

The FundRaiser Software Blog is an excellent resource for nonprofit organizations looking to learn more about fundraising, donor management, membership management, and much more.

What to do when you don't have addresses

EmailContact

Hi, Kim:

We urgently need to put out our first fundraising letter ever but only have email addresses for people (and in some cases, phone numbers). Should we send a nice looking letter by email, then follow up by phone, or should we just call to get the snail mail address, send the letter, then call again to try to schedule a face-to-face meeting?

Continue reading
3476 Hits

Revolutionize Your Thinking About Creating Targeted Mailings

Revolutionize Your Thinking About Creating Targeted Mailings

This month is the celebration of independence for the USA, and it seems appropriate to try revolutionizing your thinking about creating targeted mailings using FundRaiser. This is done by creating segments of your database, or Groupings, and, hopefully, turn an otherwise onerous task into one that gives you more freedom and choice. Groupings help you to pull out a sampling of people (or organizations) from your full database in order to treat them as a separate group. Why would you even want to do that? Well, the most common answer is to “target” an audience with a specific message from your organization, whether for an appeal letter, an invitation to an event, or a special “thank you” newsletter at the end of a particularly successful campaign.

By becoming  comfortable with creating Groupings, this will become an enjoyable task. And I’m going to give you some hints to ease you into creating exactly the groups of records you need. There is a trick to it all and it doesn’t even involve the software. Here it is, in a nutshell:

Continue reading
5276 Hits

Segmenting Lists

Segmenting Lists

Dear Kim,

I am about to take the plunge. For years I’ve listened to many fundraisers stress the importance of segmenting your donor lists. For a variety of reasons including laziness, being too busy, and poor software, I have not yet done this.

Continue reading
5195 Hits

Don’t Forget to Reach Out to Tribute Donors’ Families

Don’t Forget to Reach Out to Tribute Donors’ Families

Dear Kim,

Would it be tacky to add to our mailing list names of people from whom we have received tribute donations — in particular, the families of people for whom we receive “in memoriam” donations? In my eagerness to enlarge our donor base, I’m wondering if I’m wandering into the realm of bad taste? What do you think? —All alone with my memory gifts

Continue reading
4678 Hits
Wait a minute, while we are rendering the calendar
major gift prospects happiness donor retention campaign auction vacation adding personal notes to letters banquet small donations legacy giving membership programs donor loyalty End of Year Letters relationship tracking foundations motivation donor relations change of address updating prospects increasing giving amounts FundRaiser Hosted user spotlights campaign management charity golf tournaments repeat donors anonymous donors disaster relief New Year custom page grassroots campaign nonprofit fundraising in honor of donations general memorial giving mailing Cloud role of nonprofits appeal letters Reporting to IRS password protection alumni donor recognition donor retention rate new nonprofit arts features online donations Facebook campaign donor attrition volunteering lapsed donor updates large donations salutation motivation code National Change of Address community broadcasting Resiliency brick campaign email grants tech tip Groupings donor slip holiday letters solicitors gift entry merge notes donor targeting endowment campaign monthly giving the Ask announcements passwords communications security membersip benefits Donor Portal add ons social media FundRaiser Basic direct mail gift notes field Codes correspondence holiday event management follow up community supported gardens customer portal importing csv Reminders spare fields product news Snow Birds animal rescue understanding giving trends Task List merge fields donor prospects building donor relationships Congratulations donor engagement community arts nonprofits entering auction gifts development director Personalizing data conversion Constant Contact giving history corporate sponsors appeal publicity materials customer service Crowdfunding Campaign giving levels budget NCOA processing new features new donors Importing Data annual maintenance plan Facebook personalizing letters advanced tab spreadsheets pictures ROI board members training tip flash sales targeted mailings online donations thank you letters segmenting donors SYBUNTS tribute gifts fundraising letters overview case study operating systems reports membership benefits technical support donor preferences pledges letter templates donor attrition rate data analysis new leadership GivingTuesday donor source upgrade ticketsales LYBUNTS backing up data GoFundMe project letter FundRaiser Spark Network for Good upgrading donors mission driven how to handle auction gifts planning donor gift acceptance policy In-Kind gifts word processor holiday giving correspondance welcome packet accounting software major donors ticket sales Thank You PayPal Thanksgiving planned giving donor profile raffle Alternative Addresses office data entry donor advised funds look and feel tax summary letters capital campaign support Excel texting donors training moves management mode code on site training #GivingTuesday how-to videos fundraising Tickles transparency new version donation history phoning donors premiums Volunteer module government grants recurring gifts Company culture annual campaign volunteers donor contact information user interface operational costs

Connect With Us

  800-880-3454 ext 3
  Email Us
  Request More Information
  Monday-Friday
      8:30AM-5:30PM CST

Customer Portal Login Form

User Name:
Password:

If you are not sure about your Customer User Name, please call 800-543-4131 and we will be able to help you.

Or you have lost your password, Request Password