4 Routine Data Hygiene Best Practices for Nonprofit CRMs
With accurate and up-to-date information, your nonprofit can better understand its supporters, make informed fundraising decisions, and drive greater impact. However, managing data in a customer relationship management (CRM) system can be a complex task, especially when dealing with large volumes of information. That’s where data hygiene comes into play. Data hygiene refers to the […]
Shouldn’t Giving Be All About the Donor?
I’m an avid scanner of mail samples. I’m particularly intrigued by how organizations approach the monthly gift option on their reply forms. If you’re at all interested in growing your number of monthly donors, planting the monthly giving seeds on your appeals has become a best practice. Granted, you’re not going to get oodles and […]
Are You Still Using Return Address Labels?
By now, you probably know I love to organize. I have hundreds of direct mail and monthly giving examples scanned in. And over Christmas, I scanned in a huge box of family pictures. It’s all part of the downsizing and simplifying process my husband and I are going through. I must say, it’s tremendously liberating! […]
How Essential Is a Fundraiser?
A few weeks ago, I gave kudos to the post office, printers, mail houses, etc. But what I failed to do was give kudos to fundraisers. I recently spoke with John Jeffries, the founder of the New Canvassing Experience, a face-to-face fundraising agency focused on helping nonprofits find more monthly donors. We discussed how essential or non-essential fundraising really […]
Segmentation Is The Key To Your Nonprofits Direct Mail Success
Did you know that 50% – 60% of your nonprofit’s direct mail results comes from whom you are mailing to? Target audience is crucial, and segmentation is just as important. But, to determine the best target audience for your nonprofit’s direct mail, you first must determine the goal of your appeal. For Any Nonprofit Organization […]
How Older Ideas Can Be ‘New’ Again
As you’re going into the next decade, it might be a good time to take stock of some old ideas that can be new again. But how do you find those old ideas? Go back to some of your old packages and emails, and retest them. See what happens. When I worked at Reader’s Digest […]
Spread Grateful Cheer to Your Monthly Donors
Every weekend, I go through my mail from the week before. It’s also when I create a swipe file of direct mail packs and ideas I like. I scan in what I like and toss the rest. This past week, I had a bunch of holiday cards. Some recognized my ongoing monthly gifts; others did […]
Why Direct Mail Fundraising Is Better This Year-End Giving Season
This past weekend, I spent several hours going through the stack of direct mail packs I had received in the past two weeks. I reviewed each one, identified organizations I’d like to donate to and then I scanned in those that could help give me some new ideas for year-end giving appeals for organizations I […]
It’s OK to Repeat a Message
I’m not going to write about monthly donors for a change. Instead, now is the time to get as many one-time gifts, which will help feed your monthly donor program next year. The year-end appeal season is here. The clock is ticking… The mail pile is growing… The inbox is overflowing… The question is: How […]
Direct Mail Packs For Nonprofits
I hope you were convinced from one of my earlier blogs that direct mail for nonprofits is still the most effective way to generate donations from your existing donors and generate new donors. The next question you might ask yourselves then is how often and how can you best reach out to your donors, so they’ll be […]
