Fundraising Strategies

Posted 12/3/25 When I graduated college, my first job was a sales position at a small, entrepreneurial business, and the first thing I learned was the “Elevator Speech.” After so many years in both sales and fundraising, I began to realize the value of an effective and concise message. The Elevator Speech was named for […]

Posted: 11/4/24 When I sat down to begin writing this post, my focus was going to include more thoughts on extroverts and introverts in fundraising, but as I was writing, a related topic surfaced. In my experience, it appears that most nonprofit organizations and even businesses look for extroverts to “find new business or attract

Posted on 7/28/24 With over 14 years experience in nonprofit fundraising, I was surprised by something that I did not expect in my career, especially coming from a sales background. It is mostly understood that fundraising professionals are expected to be outside of the office most of the time cultivating new relationships, maintaining connections with

Posted 10/28/23 I have moved around in my career, in both the for-profit as well as nonprofit, and have noticed a recurring theme related to these moves. When entering a new position as a fundraiser for an organization, whether large or small, newer or long-standing, I have noticed a tendency for organizations to assume that

Posted 4/16/23 The concept of conditioning is typically taught early when learning about psychology. It basically involves adapting and shaping behavior. Here is one example; just before you give a treat to a dog, you ring a bell. This is repeated several times, the bell is rung and then the treat is given. Eventually when

Updated 4/7/23 The pressure to raise more money is an understood in the fundraising profession. How do you make this happen? It typically begins with finding the money and who has it. The pitfall however, with identifying prospective donors is to begin viewing each as dollar signs, especially when under pressure to increase funding. If

Posted 8/14/22 While working for an organization in a smaller community, I was responsible for gathering resources that helped raise funds in support of events. This not only involved securing sponsorships, but also auction/raffle items to raise money. Nothing special, just something that is typically the responsibility of fundraisers when working on events. One day,

Posted 12/23/21 A colleague from my network, whom I respect very much, is a corporate realtor focusing on the sale / rental of warehouse and office space. When discussing business development, he always said “90% of sales is showing up.” At first I had to think about it, but soon realized he was right, it

Posted 12/6/21 There is a saying in the fundraising world that says: “It is difficult to secure a donation if you don’t ask.” This is absolutely true, but in my experience, it is not the whole story. The first position I was fortunate enough to land, upon making a career transition to the nonprofit, was

  Posted 11/15/21  When dealing with fundraising relationships (or any relationships for that matter), and you run into an unexpected stumbling block along the way, there really is no manual to look up how to get the relationship back on track. I struggled with this when beginning a job search in sales where the interviewer