Here’s a great post from Marc Pitman, aka The Fundraising Coach.  Today, Marc writes about how to write effective fundraising letter. Marc also has a great new post on his site, entitled “Are you as creative as Red Box?“, which you should check out. Marc is a great friend of Step by Step Fundraising.  I hope you take […]

Everybody knows that you should send a thank you note to a donor. Along with the fundraising “ask” letter, these two kinds of letters are the bookends. However these not be the only times you make contact with your supporters. The following is a list of ten reasons you should stay in contact with your […]

Alright, so your major fundraiser event is over. Your self-imposed deadline has come and gone. Now comes the part when you add all the donations up, subtract your expenses, and find out if you met your goal. Hopefully, you have not only met your goal, but you have wildly exceeded it. However, that isn’t always […]

One of the most important tools available to any leader of a non profit organization is the fundraising letter. With a finely-crafted missive, the leader will be able to clarify the mission, excite the audience, and deliver on the stated need. However, getting the letter to the point where it is “finely-crafted” is the hard […]

It’s always helpful to study how the big boys do it, even though most of us aren’t in that league. Most of us struggle with small budgets and only a local outreach. However, if we look carefully enough, the “big boys” do teach us many important lessons that we can scale down and apply to […]

According to the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) 2009 State of Fundraising Survey, only “43 percent of charities raised more money in 2009 than in 2008, marking it the worst year for charitable fundraising in a decade.” The survey states that declines were consistent regardless of cause. However, several of the food banks that I […]

Halloween was this past weekend and we turned deep into the dark side.  Goulies and ghosties walked the streets in my neighborhood. So let’s turn to the dark side of your year-end fundraising campaign – and shine a light on mistakes many organizations make. Here’s my Top 10 list of ways to sabotage your year-end […]