By my most recent count, there are 106 fundraising blogs out there. My definition of "fundraising blogs" is deliberately broad -- these are blogs that are touch on fundraising in some way, at some time. That's a lot of talk about fundraising. And here, in my More than a normal person can (or probably should) read. But I do.

Sharpe, a planned-giving consultant in Memphis. In 2010 Network for Good has taken a crack at the five trends (with an online spin, of course) we've seen and anticipate will affect your fundraising in the months to come. You may see a greater number of donations with a smaller average gift size. What this means for you: Your nonprofit needs to make recurring giving a priority in your online fundraising strategy -- not a footnote. No one can say for sure what 2010 will bring. Will there be an economic recovery?

One of the more common critiques you'll hear of direct mail fundraising letters:  It's too long. Meaning:  I'd never read a letter that long. Talking about how long a letter should be is rather like debating how long a piece of string should be; it depends on what you want to do with it. But really, that long letter (however long it is) is probably not too long . Longer letters usually work better than short ones.  But if you're relying on short letters because you personally don't have time to read longer letters, you're probably making a mistake. (For more

Need help planning and executing an online fundraising campaign? Introducing Campaign in a Box, a new fundraising campaign planning guide from Network for Good and Firefly Partners. This guide features a 7-step process that will quickly lead you through the planning of a successful fundraising campaign. What is this guide all about? Are you looking for a way to strategically grow your online donations? In addition to your ongoing fundraising, advocacy and communication activities, there are times throughout the year when you need to lead your members through a series

If you fed a million fundraising letters into a text-analyzing computer, I bet you'd get back a message of: MAKE IT STOP! million words of fundraising communication to a "linguistic MRI" and discovered that those words were, well, not so great. Among other problems, he found that the fundraising copy: Well, someone pretty much did that -- the text-analyzing, not the making it stop. Frank Dickerson of Claremont Graduate University, in a study called "The Way We Write Is All Wrong," says he subjected 1.5

An online fundraising campaign . A specific goal(s) A set of actions you need people to take in order to reach that goal(s) A timeline – start and end dates Read on to learn why an online campaign may just be the ticket to greater online fundraising success: Campaign messaging gives you fresh content for your email marketing . As much as we aim to create urgency in our fundraising appeals, our messaging may not seem quite as timely to our potential donors. A myth surrounding raising funds online is simply that “if you build it, they will come.” Where are these ghoulish, baseball-bat-swinging donors who are wildly impressed by your donate button? (No

Want some more great resources to help you be an effective fundraiser? Here are the slides from a talked given that January's DMA 2009 Washington Nonprofit Conference by the ASPCA 's Steve Froehlich, Senior Director of Direct Response: The Resources that Make Good Fundraisers Great (PDF). And, in case you missed it, see Best blogs for fundraisers .) Lots of good stuff here. And Steve has (ahem) good taste in blogs. (And,

You’ll recall that we’ve raised the issue of where the use of social media fits into the overall fundraising priorities of nonprofits. First we asked about the overall fundraising mix … As a fundraiser in a nonprofit organization, how much mind share will you devote comparatively to each of the following areas over the next 12 months ("5" would represent the greatest amount of attention)? We’ve now "closed" our online survey asking your opinions on the subject. Here are the responses to our three questions.

We're not sure if that world is more or less scary than the one we're working in now: Twitter, CAN-SPAM, Web design and all sorts of other new tools, rules and jargon we need to learn. But for all its differences and idiosyncrasies, development, marketing, executive and volunteer staff should feel encouraged about the Internet: the same basic principles of fundraising apply. Navigate to your organization's website; read the last email you sent to your enewsletter list; and, think about that Facebook page you started a couple of months ago.  Now use these five principles as

Here are some of my favorite fundraising tips. You’ll find that you have happier donors, lower fundraising costs, and higher response rates. These tips come from my book “Fundraising Buffet: 101 Practical Ideas to Increase Donations & Deepen Donor Satisfaction.” Tags: Uncategorized fundraising tip I love tips!  They’re They’re short, quick, and to-the-point.