It feels like I have been talking non-stop about this day. It feels good for it to finally be here. We at The Non-Profit Toolbox want to thank all who were able to attend and all that support us. Pictures, videos and recaps of presentations will be coming in the next few days, because of [...]
The challenge of raising money for small nonprofits, many of which have no designated development staff, is a topic of concern for many of my clients. I have contemplated writing a book to address this subject but never made the time to do so. Now, I can take this task off my “Someday I will…” list because Amy Eisenstein, CFRE has written that book and has done so exceedingly well.
Several years ago, while working with a mid-sized nonprofit, the development director asked me to join their monthly donor campaign. This was before online “donate now” buttons were ubiquitous and smaller nonprofits didn’t have the resources to track donations on a monthly basis. While I always gave a donation to my clients when they asked, I hadn’t yet committed to a monthly giving program.
Many of my clients present me with this question in our initial meeting: “How often should we ask people to donate to our organization?” I generally answer this question with a question: “How often do you ask them now?” It is surprising to me when they respond that they send out two appeals a year, spring and fall.