The most valuable asset any fund development operation has is the accuracy of its data and the ability to analyze it. A well-configured database can be used to help analyze past fundraising campaigns, calculate benchmarks and metrics, track comprehensive donor history and issue financial reports (including reports to reconcile with your financial system) and issue charitable tax receipts.  

It can also be used to help streamline stewardship, such as tracking who must be thanked and...

Last week, we talked about the budget. Oh, those numbers can be tricky but they’re such a big piece of getting your fundraising plan solidified.  

What’s next?  

You pitch to the board to get their buy-in.   

• You’ve prepped everything  
• You created line charts to show revenue, expenses and projected growth 
• You know your numbers  
• You prepared a script 

And the day comes for your pitch... 

>>>>>>And they tear...

Before we launch into why you need a budget, I want to touch on the fundraising plan (cause why have a budget without a plan?). 

Last week, we talked about the value of a fundraising plan. The week before, we talked about why it’s important to plan at all. 

Here’s a bit of a recap... 

The plan is where it all happens. So, when you carve out time to start writing your plan, you start by asking some questions - this list is not...

So, last week we talked about why we need to plan.  

To refresh, we need to plan because it’s the best way you can meet that year-end financial target.  

But it’s not just planning – it's formalizing a fundraising plan.  

And there’s great value in developing a plan because you have all of your initiatives mapped out under one big umbrella. 

Don't ya love beach umbrellas!

Whether you do direct mail, special...

You work a small- to mid-sized charity. You're the sole fundraiser or you have a small team. You're wearing multiple hats and fundraising is just one of them or fundraising is your only focus. 

Whatever the case may be – what we know is this:  

It’s your job to meet your fundraising target each year.  

And how do you do that?  

You plan.  

And by plan, we mean plan your fundraising plan.  

Let’s face it.  

>>Some of us wing it...

You know when you’re witness to a pivotal conversation? This is one of them.  

Cathy Mann is joined by special guest, Sharon Redsky from Redsky Fundraising. Sharon is a resident of Winnipeg and First Nation member of Shoal Lake #40. She has extensive experience in working with Indigenous-led organizations and was awarded the YMCA-YWCA Women of Distinction, Community Champion Award in 2017. 

Cathy and Sharon sit down to talk about resiliency, correcting disparities and the need...

Cathy is joined by special guest, Maureen Lymburner from Home Again Furniture Bank, who wants to implement mini fundraising education sessions for her board.

Maureen shares with Cathy that they have added new members to the board and are recruiting more. The educational sessions will help as the board members are coming in from different organizations with different levels of fundraising knowledge. 

"Most hear the word fundraising and want to hide under a table!"

But...

Multi-channel marketing: it sounds all fancy shmancy.

And there are a lot of moving parts to it but here's what it really means: using a variety of marketing channels to reach your target audience. This can include direct mail, email, social media, paid social, paid search, telemarketing, traditional media like radio, TV... the list goes on...

And it can be challenging when you’re the sole fundraiser to implement it.

So why do it?

Because increasing the number of channels or platforms...

Oh man, today’s topic is so important!

We’re talking thank you letters.

They’re a critical piece to your fundraising mix but often, they’re either not done well or sometimes not even done at all.

So, I’m going to answer the age-old question: how is a thank you letter like a drag queen?

Doesn’t everyone ask that?

Before I share a story, let me talk about why we even need thank you letters.

Did you know that something like 60% of first-time donors do not...

Oh data…we love you but why is our relationship a struggle sometimes?

You know, every client we’ve ever worked with needed to work on their data. So if you feel like your data needs some work…

You. Are. Not. Alone.

Your database can do so many important things…if it is well configured.

We have a lot of clients vociferously tell us just how bad their donor database is. When we ask a few more questions, we usually discover that they are using a not bad off-the-shelf...