Shelisa Demuth

The Far Side of Fundraising Tip of the Week Transactional fundraising leads to high rates of donor loss. Most organizations lose 4 out of 5 first-time donors. The more rapidly and impersonally we secure support, the more we sub-optimize giving potential and the more rapidly donors depart. High rates of donor attrition, coupled with the continue contraction of giving households, spell long-term disaster for most nonprofits. Don't follow the transactional lemmings as they plunged into the sea. Adopt sustainable practices. You may be in the minority but you will help your organization survive and eventually thrive. This one requires that you closely to see who stands out in adopting sustainable practices.

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Bi-partisan election alert! The 2024 Election is a problem for fundraising. Experts say that November will be a total loss when it comes to getting donor attention. So, let's focus on how to maximize fundraising this fall. With less than two months, let's get started! Check out our FREE webinar! https://lnkd.in/gzfu5sqG

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An impact report is a pivotal opportunity – a chance to enhance your organization’s donor retention and stewardship, leading to long-term sustainability and growth. Retaining existing donors is significantly more cost effective than acquiring new ones, and if you steward those donors by keeping them informed, appreciated and engaged, they’ll likely increase their contributions over time and become valuable advocates for your cause. But how can you use your impact report to build those relationships? Storyraise co-founders Josh Kligman and Jeff Rum have compiled six key steps for impact report success, allowing your report to work for you. View the full ebook here: https://lnkd.in/eV549RYA

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Many donors still are trying to understand how donor-advised funds work. Likewise, a lot of nonprofit leaders still are unsure the right way to work with donors who give through DAFs, much less the DAF providers themselves. In the latest Giving Ventures podcast, we tackle both sides of the equation. The podcast plays back a great webinar we hosted for non-profit leaders last week exploring how to use and work with DAF providers. Take a listen, whether you be a donor, non-profit CEO, or a fundraiser. You'll find something to help you!

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Much of the work we do at Building Impact Partners is about helping donors get more money moving to where it’s most needed. My first book, Money with Meaning (https://bit.ly/3CHmwtv) is part of that effort. It's written as a DIY guide for donors looking for more meaningful giving--where social impact and personal fulfillment come together. I launched the book back in June 2023, I am so grateful for all the help, support and encouragement from friends and colleagues, helping the book hit #1 in the Philanthropy, Charity and Nonprofit Fundraising categories on Amazon, not only in launch week but a couple times since then. One of the best parts has been hearing stories directly from readers about how it has made a difference in their lives and helped them gear up their giving. So why am I posting about this now? Because the end of year giving season is upon us and there is still so much untapped potential in philanthropy--literally trillions of dollars on the sidelines. This is the unique time of year when many donors who’ve been putting off their giving start to give it more attention. This giving season feels all the more pivotal because over the past year or so many of us who work in the philanthropy and fundraising space have been hearing from amazing leaders and organizations that they have started to hit a wall in their fundraising efforts. Even as many organizations are doing their best work in a world that is literally and figuratively on fire, many are growing beyond their base of existing donors and running out of folks to ask. I know from what readers have already shared that this book can really make a difference. But one of the challenges with a niche book like this is that conventional marketing isn’t a great way to reach the book’s core audience of wealthy individuals and their advisors. This is an audience for whom personal recommendations and word of mouth go a particularly long way.    So, if you’re game to help boost this book, please help spread the word--whether by sharing this post, buying a copy, gifting a copy, writing a review or recommending it to someone you know. I’ve created a simple 30-second form (https://bit.ly/4fWsc1L) with options for how to help (plenty of which don’t require you to have a rolodex full of wealthy would-be donors!) If you complete the form we’ll follow up with you directly to make next steps fast and easy. Asking for help isn’t always easy, but I definitely feel more comfortable doing so because I believe that getting this book into more people’s hands has potential benefits not only for those who read it--but also for extraordinary social entrepreneurs who will benefit from the resources that flow when more people begin taking action to gear up their giving.   With much gratitude! --Alex

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🔔 Attention nonprofit fundraisers- The GivingUSA report is out, and you’ll see lots of interpretations of the data this week! But worry not, Kurt Worrell and I will unpack everything in a panel hosted by NXUnite by Nexus Marketing on July 11, 2024, at 3:00 PM ET. While individual giving is down YOY when accounting for inflation, I plan to focus on: 📈 The growth of DAF giving 📈 Improving donor retention 📈 Incorporating planned giving strategies Registration link in the comments below. #NonprofitFundraising #majorgifts

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Are you concerned about how the election could negatively impact nonprofit fundraising in 2024? 😬 This article provides several helpful suggestions to keep your communications plan nimble around the volatile election cycle 🧭 I’d add two more things: 1️⃣ DAFs can not be used to donate to c4s or political campaigns - generally only 501(c)3s are DAF eligible ✅ So with DAF fundraising, you’re not “competing” with other possible use of funds 🤩 It’s a critical year to more proactively engage with DAF fundraising as a buffer against those possible election impacts 🛡️ DAF Day is on October 10th for a reason! It gives every nonprofit a shared event to activate more of those $230 billion in DAFs set aside for charitable giving 🙌🏼 2️⃣ I think the biggest threat to nonprofit fundraising success and donor participation is not a high dollar election, it’s apathy 🤷🏼‍♂️ I’m optimistic that the increased passion and energy around this election will energize people to be engaged in society more broadly ⚡️ With more hope, comes a greater likelihood of believing in nonprofit causes and taking action to support them 💪🏽 Maybe we can find more ways to speak to that increased hope with our fundraising efforts instead of fearing distraction? 💞 #nonprofit #fundraising #philanthropy

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𝐄𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐄𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐎𝐚𝐤𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝: 𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐞'𝐬 𝐏𝐫𝐨 𝐁𝐨𝐧𝐨 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 🌟 Salesforce's collaboration with the East Oakland Collective (EOC) through a pro bono project at Venture2Impact has yielded impressive outcomes in community development and resilience. The partnership aimed to launch a business and entrepreneurship curriculum to empower the local community, particularly its most vulnerable members through Skills-Based Volunteering. The impact of this initiative is profound: 100% of EOC staff who participated in the training now report enhanced capabilities and confidence in delivering business education to their community 📈. The initiative has instilled a strong sense of empowerment among EOC staff, with 100% feeling equipped to implement the training effectively 💪. This project not only boosted the community but also enhanced job satisfaction among Salesforce volunteers, with 100% expressing a positive shift in their view of the company ❤️. This successful engagement highlights the transformative power of corporate-community partnerships in fostering local economic and social resilience. Read the case study in detail: https://lnkd.in/e5bPHfdS #CommunityDevelopment #SocialImpact #CorporateResponsibility #ProBono

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4 Components of a Culture of Philanthropy "Development staff are always included in organizational decisions. Program staff play an active role in relationship building. Fundraising and engagement are inextricably linked. Transformational relationships take priority over transactions." More insights and explications of these points can be found in this important article by Claire.

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Donor Cultivation: A Term We're Using Out of Context It's one of the most frequently used words in fundraising, but used by so many in so many different ways that it has become all but meaningless. "Cultivation," in so many instances has become a parking lot term - where we put prospective donors when we don't know what to do next. We see that they are not ready for solicitation yet we hold out hopes that someday they will, so we park them "in cultivation." That usually means that we will continue to befriend them and try to warm them up when we have the chance, thereby consigning many a prospective donor to a form of suspended animation for years. I have come to call this the Hansel and Gretel deep dark woods of cultivation into which many a prospect has been lured and from which few donors actually emerge. So let's remind ourselves that cultivation is a term used to describe a phase in a larger agricultural cycle. It is proceeded by planting and followed by harvesting. Cultivation, therefore, is not a stand alone phenomenon. We can't cultivate prospective donors if we do not first plant seeds of hope in the form of real possibilities and real differences to be made. Trying to cultivate prospective donors with seeds of short term needs proves increasingly fruitless. We keep coming back to donors with another year's budget to be balanced and often with only a few abstractions and anecdotes to justify or illustrate why they should give again. We lose four out of five donors because the seeds we attempt to plant have so little potential for long term growth. We further exacerbate the problem by seeking to hurry up the harvest and wonder why we have lost so many donors for decades. We must put the cultivation back in its agricultural context. We must seek to plant seeds with far more tangible potential. We must be far more patient in allowing those seeds to take root. We must seek to harvest not on our terms but when our donors become philanthropically mellow, when they have come to believe, belong and see the chance to make the world better by giving through us. And, when they have given, we must remember another agricultural tenet - the importance of letting a field lie fallow until it naturally regenerates. In other words, we need to learn the fine art of letting donors see and enjoy the fruits of their philanthropic labors. And we certainly should not ask them to give again and again without having a lot to show from previous harvests and without offering promising seeds of new hopes lest we experience further philanthropic erosion.

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The most recent updates from AFP's Fundraising Effectiveness Project... one of our favorite go-to resources to help direct strategies and attention. tl;dr: It's not pretty, but we're looking for the opportunities... and doing everything in our power to help the trends turn in the coming days and weeks. Takeaways: * Number of donors is down YOY, with the hardest hit groups being the smaller donors. The lowest dollar donor group is down -12%. * Income raised is up, and as in recent reports, income from large donors is supporting decreases in lower-dollar giving. * Donor retention is down across the board (again). * Contrary to some other benchmarks, frequent donors (ie: sustainers) are down the most sharply compared to other donor frequency. We're still talking about how the latest reports impact strategy, but one thing is clear... donor stewardship continues to be paramount in the current fundraising landscape. https://lnkd.in/eBE6Ye5J #nonprofits #philanthropy #fundraising #afppeeps

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A mid-year fundraising evaluation can help you pick the right strategies – the ones that’ll give you the biggest bang for your buck, while making sure your fundraising plan is saturated with gratitude, stewardship, and donor love. But how exactly do you conduct a mid-year fundraising evaluation? 🤔 https://lnkd.in/eW4ZAaKm

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The latest issue of the EDA Impact newsletter is now available. Read our September issue and see the latest news, including more on: ✅Tribal Community Support ✅Build to Scale Funding  ✅Tech Hubs Tour 🗞️https://bit.ly/3NeXG6t #EconomicDevelopment #InvestingInAmerica

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The Partnership for Public Service released a new guide, Public Leaders' Guide to Engaged Trust, that introduces the concept of Engaged Trust™ and includes a framework with practical strategies and examples for federal leaders to create engagement and trust opportunities.     Explore the guide for best practices in spreading trust: https://lnkd.in/eyWpyCS5. 

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