Most of the inaccuracies I find are in simple contact and personal information: addresses, phone numbers, and emails. How many donors have you lost touch with because you don’t have any way to get a hold of them anymore? Have you ever made a follow-up call only to find out the person you’re calling for is now deceased? That’s a mistake you do not want to make twice. The most valuable information I input into Raiser’s Edge often goes in as a note with text describing insights I’ve learned about a specific donor. These insights can be as simple as their daughter playing soccer or a story he tells you about why the mission of your organization is valuable.

There is value in keeping this information so you don’t have to ask the same questions every time you talk with the donor or when you have staff turnover. But think of how valuable it could be if, before you talk with a large business in town, you could search and see how many of your donors work at that business. An employer will listen better if they know that they already have a number of employees that are giving to you. It is not a significant challenge to put education information under the education tab, or current work info under the employer tab. But this can make a huge difference in your work.

Take the time to learn where these key pieces of information should be stored in your database and then keep them there. It takes just as long to write something on a post-it note as it does to insert it into the database.

Related posts:

1. How Well Do You Know Your Database?
2. Keeping Info in Your Donor Database
3. How Clean Up Your Database
4. Power of a Clean Database
5. Event & Campaign Sponsorship Levels- Part 1

Take 30 minutes with your staff and help them understand how to update a donor record and where to input key information. You don’t have to be experts at managing databases, or using the prospect tab in Raiser’s Edge to create a valuable database. The biggest obstacle to using your database proficiently is understanding how to use it. If you have a database staff person, ask them to give you a quarterly or annual training on how to use your database.

Every organization has inconsistencies in how they input data. Your database person has a specific style they feel fits with your organization. It can be a huge struggle for that individual to keep track of donor information if each staff member is inputting differently into the system.

Do you have any tricks to keep information consistent in your organization? Is this an area you have felt immobilized by for a long time?

Related posts:

1. How Clean Up Your Database
2. Keeping Info in Your Donor Database
3. Key Pieces of Database Info
4. Power of a Clean Database
5. Action Reports

I’ve found that people have very short-term memory when you first meet them. There are so many nonprofits, so many networking events, and so many people to meet. If you wait too long, people start to forget who you are. I try to send an email within a day of meeting someone new. That way they still remember who I am, and it gives us another chance to reconnect. I often check to see if they are on LinkedIn and send them a connection invitation with my nice to meet you email.

Once you’ve emailed them, think about ways that you can plug them in. Maybe it’s an invitation to an upcoming event or inviting them on a tour. The important thing is that you make an initial connection after you’ve met.

Related posts:

1. What’s a Lead
2. Getting a Hold of People
3. Event Invitation Mistakes
4. Drowning in Agendas
5. Who Likes Meetings?

People calling your organization, attending an event, subscribing to your e-newsletter: these are all clear messages that they want to hear more about you. Fundraising isn’t about asking for money as often as possible; it is about creating relationships with the good work that your organization is doing and providing opportunities to partner with that good work.

I am always amazed at how donors find an organization. The paths that people take from stranger to supporter are numerous. Don’t limit your development work by forcing everyone to come become a donor only through one medium.

Related posts:

1. How Long to Hold a Lead

I think that we are still at the early stages of social media fundraising and we will see direct mail continue to decline and social media & online fundraising continue to grow. There are already organizations that raise hundreds of thousands of dollars using social media. Every organization needs to start developing a plan around using social media. Wouldn’t you rather be experimenting now than catching up when it is too late?

My advice is: don’t stop the direct mail campaigns that you are already doing. But, start to incorporate an online component. Start to figure out who your social media leaders are and how you can engage them. It will take a little bit of time to teach your donor community to raise money online but if we keep waiting we may find out that someday soon we are behind.

Related posts:

1. Obama Crowned Direct Mail King
2. Solicitation Letters & Direct Mail Interview
3. Social Media Classes for Nonprofits: Seattle
4. Let’s Get Real: Why Use Social Media
5. Don’t Start Social Media Too Late

One great way to manage your time is to make it the responsibility of a volunteer to set the agenda for your meetings. I like to have as many volunteers lead as much as the meeting as possible as it gives them ownership. This means you will have to do more prep work and clearly communicate with the volunteer about your meeting goals.

At some point you need to be able to cap the amount of time you’ve put into agenda preparation. If you let preparing for meetings get away from you it can take all your time. I use a similar agenda format for each meeting. I will also create a draft version of the agenda and add too it throughout the week. My agendas have a consistent flow so volunteers know what to expect.

If I spend too much time trying to figuring out what I want the meeting to focus on that is a good sign that you might not need to meet with that group quite as often. When it gets close to the meeting I like to have things as nicely prepared as I can but at some point I need to get back to other work. Include an “other updates” or “other business” section in your meetings to cover those agenda items you’re afraid you might have missed.

Related posts:

1. Who Likes Meetings?
2. Campaign Constipation
3. Great Donor Stories
4. Servant Leadership?
5. Will You Be My Volunteer?

With the exception of a few large gifts that typically have a marketing or business plan attached to them, businesses typically do not give as significantly as individuals. From my experience individuals and families are more consistently willing and able to give gifts at that level and higher. Business giving is important and a key component to a successful fundraising plan. Businesses think in terms of customers and marketing they want recognition and community impact more than traditional philanthropy. Family owned businesses can be very different as they often represent the giving of the family that runs the business.

Related posts:

1. Starting a Business Program- PART 1
2. Starting a Business Program- PART 2
3. Embedded Philanthropy: A New Age of Giving
4. Event & Campaign Sponsorship Levels- Part 2
5. Event & Campaign Sponsorship Levels- Part 1

Have open communication with your boss about the projects that you are working on and their expectations of you. I’ve found you learn more from nonverbal cues than you ever do from verbal. Watch carefully how your work is received by other co-workers. If you continually find something is not working don’t be afraid to ask some questions and try a different strategy.

Wherever you work it takes time to get to know the donors. Each organization has its own particular kind of donors and volunteers. These relationships take time to build and it is important that recognized and understand what makes them valuable and unique. Your first year of interactions are often the times where you are tested the very most. They want to see how responsive you are and if you’re really listening to them. If you tell them you’ll follow up with them do it.

Get to know your key volunteers and work to understand what they do for the organization. I’m not talking about the “official” tasks but the unspoken ones of which they are the most proud. Watch for cues on how they want you to engage with them. Some volunteers want a little pampering and others want you to super responsive.

Related posts:

1. Subtlety and Reading Between the Lines
2. Business Before Pleasure
3. The Water Cooler
4. Tooting Your Own Horn
5. Cold Calling or Networking

Here are a few techniques that I’ve used to help me. I know many of you have more years of experience and, I imagine, tricks up your sleeve than I do. So, please leave a comment below with your tricks and tips.

• Computer Monitor Sticky Notes: Beside my monitor I will often post my upcoming key deadlines or events. I may often just post my three most urgent projects so they are immediately in my view right when I sit down to work.
• Daily & Comprehensive Task Lists: I have a friend who I use to tease about having a list of her lists and now I understand her system. Most mornings I create a list of what I’d like to accomplish that day. I also have a comprehensive list of everything I need to get done so I don’t miss anything. I think that the key here is writing down reminders to yourself.
• Key Phone Call Content Sticky: When I have volunteers and board members I’ve a number of questions for I’ll create a sticky with a comprehensive list. Too often immediately after a volunteer has return my message I’ve called them back with a question I forgot to ask.
• Top Donor Names Notecard: Too keep important actions and donors at the top of my mind I will have them on a notecard upside-down on my desk. That way other donors cannot see them when they are in my office but it acts as a reminder to me of my top prospects.

Related posts:

1. Gentle Persistence
2. Action Reports
3. Pick Up the Phone
4. Calendaring

What kind of fundraising do you do and who do you do it for?

My title is Development Director, Major Gifts & Grants for the Madonna Foundation, which supports the Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital. My background is in grant proposal work, major gift work is a new area for me and I am learning a lot. Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital is a Catholic hospital that provides medical and physical rehabilitation to children and adults nationwide - we had patients from 26 states last year - located in Lincoln, NE.

What keeps you going? Why do you keep working in development?

Initially I got started in fundraising because that is who would give me the opportunity to do more than photocopying. Nonprofits are always understaffed and most are willing to give you a chance to show what you can do. I got hooked on going to work for a good cause. Here at Madonna you see folks who have had their lives changed by a stroke or a car accident, something that could happen to anyone I know, and fundraising means the difference between that accident taking away everything important to a patient, and being able to help a patient regain their life in the fullest way possible. That’s a great reason to come to work.

What tips/advice do you have to other fundraisers in your field?

I’m not the best person to give major gift people advice, but I have written grant proposals for a long time. I guess my best advice is to worry less about the writing and more about the message. I spend much more time these days worrying whether or not I am getting across any sense of need or urgency than whether or not it would impress my English professors. If you can find 2-3 sentences that tell a reader why it is absolutely critical they support your project, the rest seems to work out.

What is the most frustrating or difficult thing about fund development?

My pet peeve is being asked to find a project for a particular funding source. “How do we get funding from _______” is the wrong question. The need should drive all decisions about cultivating and approaching foundations - and donors for that matter.

Do you have any memorable donor visits or solicitations that you’d like to share?

There are all kinds of kooky donor stories - especially, I think, from college development offices it seems. Something about colleges brings out the folks who have stuffed mattresses with money or whatever. For myself, though, I like the ones where the process worked - doing the homework, making the connections, all the way through how keeping the good relationship after the gift led to another gift. These folks are the ones that keep us going.

What is the best fundraising advice you have ever been given?

My mom, who as a volunteer fundraiser has raised more individual donor money than I probably ever will, has told me in about 100 ways: Just get out there and ask. You can spend all the time in the world researching and strategizing but if you don’t actually go to someone and ask for what you need, it won’t matter.

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1. Elain Evans: Featured Fundraiser
2. Featured Fundraiser: Tom McLagan
3. Janice Chan: Featured Fundraiser
4. Cass Wheeler: Featured Fundraiser
5. Sylvia Allen: Featured Fundraiser