Read Part 1 here
Most schools find that building strong relationships with parents, alumni, and the close relatives of students and alumni, is an excellent way to increase donor loyalty and donations.
Read Part 1 here
Most schools find that building strong relationships with parents, alumni, and the close relatives of students and alumni, is an excellent way to increase donor loyalty and donations.
Read Part 2 here
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 to increased donations for several schools who are FundRaiser users. They know for a fact that these groups are their most generous because they clearly identified this trend in FundRaiser. Using these same techniques to identify common giving trends, your school – or other non profit— can clarify which of your constituent groups are most supportive.
Some interesting facts about asking for money:
few people give money unless they are askednearly everyone feels good when they give moneylower income people dig deeper and give a higher percentage of their income than high income peoplewhen you ask people you know for a contribution, at least half of them will say yesAre you still nervous thinking about how you 'should' ask for money, but think you can't?
Dear Kim:
How does a really good organization get foundation funding? I know from your books that you don’t recommend relying on grants, but it seems like they are a help for getting programs off the ground. I have used the Foundation Center’s database, which is great, and I have identified potential grantmakers, followed instructions, but so far have nothing to show for it. I took an online course on grant writing and, I hope without sounding arrogant, I feel I know how to write a grant. But it seems like you need to really know somebody to get grant money. Can you share any secrets?
Dear Kim,
We have 500 donors, of whom 50 give over $1,000 and another 50 give between $500-999. We do a decent job of keeping in touch with these 100 donors, usually talking to them by phone or visiting the top 20 largest donors at least once a year. I keep all the information on these donors and I am retiring, so cleaning out my files and getting ready to pass this information on to the next person. I have pages of stuff on some people, and almost nothing on others. But what should I have? And what should I delete?
Some of you may remember my stories about my wondrous Great Aunt Frances. We grew into close friends over the years I lived a few blocks from her in NYC.
Aunt Frances was fantastic—a warm, loving, down-to-earth lady who’d had many life adventures and was a fantastic cook.