Should You Have An Annual Board Retreat?

 

   Because a big part of my practice is facilitating Board Retreats, of course I am going to answer that question with a resounding YES.

   And yes, you should have an outside facilitator.

   While we are at it, let's respond to another obvious question: Yes, you should pay this facilitator and not chose the cheapest consultant around. Face it, you do get what you pay for, and you do value things according to how much they cost you.

   So, now that all that is cleared up, let's talk about your Board Retreat. (READ MORE)

That All Important Ask

  There are many ways for your organization to raise money, from direct mail to a special event to face-to-face solicitations. You can write a grant proposal, offer a corporation a sponsorship package, or ask your supporters to ask their networks to sponsor their activities as a benefit to your organization.       You can push people to your website, join a crowdfunding site, shop at a specific store that will give some percentage of the profit they make that day. What all of these have in common is that you must ask someone or some group of people to please support the work you do.

   The thing about asks is that there is no one right way to ask. In fact, different fundraising techniques require a different type of an ask.

   For example, if you are sending out hundreds, perhaps thousands or tens of thousands of letters or emails, your ask by definition must be pretty generic. While I strongly suggest you segment your list and send slightly different messages to regular supporters, larger supporters, lapsed supporters and those who have never supported you at all, your ask is pretty one-sided. You have decided what you want them to support and you are telling them why (you think) their gift matters. (READ MORE)

 

   When I was the chief development officer (and sometimes the only development officer) of my organization, I tried to ensure that our annual giving fundraising was robust and a good foundation for major gifts.  Toward that end, I always did two to four annual appeals, depending on the size of my database.  Some organizations do many more.

   The reasons for multiple mailings are varied:

• The main reason was to keep my database as up to date as possible.  Approximately 1.5% of your mailing addresses will go bad each month, and while there are tools to ensure that the address you have is still a valid address, it may not be a valid address for your donor.  More frequent mailings helped me to ensure that I had or could get current addresses for those who were on my database. (READ MORE)