FundRaiser Blog

What do schools have in common with theatres and hospitals when it comes to fundraising? The answer is that all of them have a source of potential donors among the people who have benefited from their paid services. When schools focus their donor cultivation on parents, alumni, and the close relatives of students and alumni, they are likely to see a very positive return.
Knowing this has led several private schools who are FundRaiser users to succeed at increasing their donations over the last few years.

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If you work best with an 'in person' trainer, need to get up to speed fast, and/or want to work directly with a trainer with your data and fundraising task, onsite training might be the way for you to go. It was for the Lisner-Louise-Dickson-Hurt Home.

Letter appeals are an integral tool to fundraising at US Labor Education in the Americas Project. USLEAP uses them not only to raise money but also to keep donors informed.

"We send out four letters a year to repeat donors and an occasional letter to lapsed donors depending on time available," says Rachel Wallis, Development Associate, and a FundRaiser Professional user. The repeat mailings are worthwhile. "Twenty percent of our donors give more than once a year in response," she says.

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At FundRaiser Software, we have a policy of every month having at least one 3-day holiday weekend.  In August, the US has no official holiday for some reason, so we create our own.

We used to celebrate the Australian holiday of Picnic Day in August. What a fine tradition!  But, we recently discovered that August is also Happiness Happens month, and we couldn't resist.  So we have combined the old-fashioned fun of Picnic Day with the spontaneity of Happiness Happens Day.  It just doesn't get any better. If you would like to know more about the Happiness Happens movement, visit the website of the Secret Society of Happy People, www.sohp.com . 

So our FundRaiser users can join us in celebrating happiness, we're offering a free copy of Don't Even Think of Raining on My Parade: Adventures of the Secret Society of Happy People for any FundRaiser purchase of over $200. Whether you need to upgrade, update, renew support, purchase a module or add additional users, we'll be thrilled to hear from you! Call us at: 800-880-3454 ext. 3

Habitat for Humanity/7 Rivers Maine came to FundRaiser looking for a more powerful software to help with their fund raising. They were using an outdated version of software which they acquired through the nationwide Habitat for Humanity umbrella organization. Now they were finding that software too limiting.

In their work, Habitat for Humanity/7 Rivers Maine coordinates the labor of volunteers with contributions of money and materials to build modest, affordable housing. For that reason, excellent tracking of volunteers and gifts of money and goods are crucial to their mission. They needed to be able to easily enter, categorize, and report on these key areas.

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You can now view all of the training videos at any time, if you are a FundRaiser user with current support. Just log into the Customer Portal and click on the Training Video tab. There you will see links to:

Gilda's Club of Western Pennsylvania has multiple events running concurrently every year to support the variety of services they offer. The organization provides a meeting place and activities for people affected directly and indirectly by cancer. Debra Markovich, Executive Assistant at Gilda's Club of Western Pennsylvania uses FundRaiser Professional on a daily basis.

To help keep event information well organized and easy to access, Debra finds the Campaign Management module particularly helpful. "I use it a lot. It really works well," she says.

"Last year we had two big campaigns going on all year. One was a mortgage reduction campaign, and the other was an annual fundraising campaign....  click here to read the full story

Undertaking a 'full-throttle' development program can have its dangers, especially when it involves implementing new software. Ward Orem, CEO of the Lisner-Louise-Dickson-Hurt Home, has seen organizations go down because they became tangled in their own technology. For that reason, when he recognized the need for software to support the Home's new development efforts, he took some important precautionary measures.

"I want to make sure that the Home is here in the future," says Ward. "Up until 5 years ago, we didn't have an aggressive development program. Our work was supported by an endowment but not a huge one. Whatever modest development efforts we made were scribbled on notes and kept in a binder"...  click here to read full story

This week I was reminded how important it is not to just do a good job but to be able to SHOW that you have and can do a good job. Calculating ROI (Return On Investment) on fundraising activities such as events or appeals is one way to do this.

Judy Nerl has done this with some of  Our Lady of the Holy Spirit's outreach activities. She gathered figures to show which activities were generating more income. In this she needed to know the balance between incoming donations and outgoing expenses. The organization runs a large and historically rich facility on a tight budget. The facility serves as a spiritual center for the Catholic Church. Among the Center’s many activities this year, are events and retreats for high schools students.

This week I was reminded how important it is not to just do a good job but to be able to SHOW that you have and can do a good job. Calculating ROI (Return On Investment) on fundraising activities such as events or appeals is one way to do this.

Judy Nerl has done this with some of  Our Lady of the Holy Spirit's outreach activities. She gathered figures to show which activities were generating more income. In this she needed to know the balance between incoming donations and outgoing expenses. The organization runs a large and historically rich facility on a tight budget. The facility serves as a spiritual center for the Catholic Church. Among the Center’s many activities this year, are events and retreats for high schools students.

This week I was reminded how important it is not to just do a good job but to be able to SHOW that you have and can do a good job. Calculating ROI (Return On Investment) on fundraising activities such as events or appeals is one way to do this.

Judy Nerl has done this with some of  Our Lady of the Holy Spirit's outreach activities. She gathered figures to show which activities were generating more income. In this she needed to know the balance between incoming donations and outgoing expenses. The organization runs a large and historically rich facility on a tight budget. The facility serves as a spiritual center for the Catholic Church. Among the Center’s many activities this year, are events and retreats for high schools students.