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By: Katie Kinder DeBauche, Associate “It’s almost the end of the year! When is the end of the year appeal going to be in mailboxes?” How often have you heard this from board members and other stakeholders; volunteers and staff; or even clients? It’s that time again – the end of the year fundraising push – now known as “Giving Season” and it arrives earlier and earlier each year. As you’re reading this, you, too, may
By: Karen Kegg, Senior Associate Feasibility studies, or planning studies, are a recommended tool for pre-campaign readiness. Interviews are conducted on donors and friends of an organization who desire to launch a major fundraising campaign in the near future. Not only is the study used to test drive a financial goal set by the Board, but to engage the donor base and empower them to make decisions, understand their wants and needs, clear up misperceptions of
By: Marion Lee, CFRE For many nonprofit organizations, a feasibility study is a huge leap into the unknown. An organization may never have attempted a major fundraising campaign for construction or endowment, or many years have passed since the last campaign. As noted in Karen Kegg’s article, feasibility studies surface information beneficial to the organization, but what do you do next? Once a study is complete, the Board and staff should take time to assimilate the
By Marion Lee, CFRE Donors were generous to local and state nonprofits at the end of 2018. At least, we think so, because we received quite a few calls and emails from friends and colleagues asking anew a question that has surfaced regularly for us since about 1992. “How do we handle the transaction fee charged by the credit card companies?” In 1992, credit card companies offering frequent flyer miles for airline and other travel
Amplify Austin and the Big Give SA are two of the largest annual crowd funding efforts in our area. The fund drives continue to achieve record numbers of donors and dollars for agencies throughout South Texas. The 2019 Amplify Austin Day was held February 28 – March 1, giving the city a 24-hour period for the community to help local nonprofits via various social media outlets. The 2019 total of $11,221,087 topped the 2018 total of more
By Covita Moroney, CFRE and Joyce Penland, CFRE With nearly 59 years between us as development officers, we had a conversation recently about what 20/20 hindsight has afforded us as we look at our efforts to connect with donors, board members, and other significant investors in the organizations we have served. We hope this conversation encourages development officers, particularly those new to the profession or new to a position, to “make the most important thing
By Shelby Atherton and Marion Lee The Giving USA figures are out for 2017 and there is good news! Giving in 2017 rose to more than $410 billion, topping 2016 figures of more than $390 billion. While this appears to be great news, with a 5.2% increase in giving (not inflation adjusted), there are some trends that bear a closer look. So, let’s begin by looking at the data. 2017 contributions by donor type – total
By Priscilla Guajardo Cortez, J.D., M.Ed. Summer is quickly approaching and for many that means FUN! For nonprofit organizations, especially the development staff, it means FUNdraising! During the summer months, nonprofits typically experience a slowdown. Donors and board members take vacation and programming is often scaled back. The summer is an excellent time for the development team to take advantage of the quiet and plan for the rest of the year. Here are 10 things development