Charitable people – Help others in need. For instance, giving money to a soup kitchen before Thanksgiving so they can buy turkeys for their annual meal would make one a charitable person. Charity – Helping people in need. MORE

My pal Dr. Russell James is at it again. This time, he researched what fundraiser job titles inspire more engagement, connectivity, and giving. MORE

Here’s an old letter from my alma mater. In 2012 they achieved their goal and raised $1 billion but, in my humble opinion, they failed miserably. . Although this letter is meant for the “community” (non-donors and donors), this is NOT how you should ever address people. MORE

The fact that revenues from charitable gifts have been stuck at just 2% of GDP (gross domestic product) for over four decades is a crime. Imagine how much good could be done if we helped the revenues from charitable gifts grow to just 2.5% Recently I was told, “Greg, you are one strong cup of coffee.” ” I like that. Here’s why I am the way I am: 1. I believe life is very, very short. Both of my parents died in their 60’s. MORE

in 2012 with an estimated 6% (150,000) leaving charitable bequests. But, interestingly, out of those 150,000 charitable estates, only 2,225 (1.5%) were taxable as a result of being worth more than $5 million. of the charitable estates in the U.S. MORE

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Fundraising Lead Generation Major Giving Planned Giving charitable giving donor cultivation fundraising technology major gift marketing Marketing Solutions nonprofit marketing planned gift marketingI was tired of waiting. MORE

Thanks to Giving USA and Third Sector’s Gross Domestic Philanthropy report , we now know that the United States continues to be the most charitable nation on the planet. A chart from Third Sector’s Report. MORE

Fundraising Charitable Giving Cultivation charity donor engagement engagement fundraising nonprofit tips PhilanthropyIf you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know that I coined the phrase “ engagement fundraising ” in 2013. Here’s my first rant on the subject. But if you haven’t done a demo with us recently you probably haven’t heard these new phrases/concepts. That’s why I’m sharing them with you today. MORE

Nearly $92, says Network for Good partner Convio in a new infographic summarizing their findings on online outreach. MORE

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Fundraising strategy best practices for fundraising charitable giving cultivation for major gifts cultivation for planned giving fundraising sales manager legacy gift fundraisers major gift fundraisers nonprofit sales manager Sales Strategy veritus groupThe private sector has sales managers for their revenue generation teams. The nonprofit sector, not so much. Sales managers are responsible for: Meeting sales/revenue and profitability targets. Planning and budgeting. Hiring and firing. MORE

Today, Joe Meehan pointed me toward’s the article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy about President Obama’s new bill limiting charitable deductions. Most people are charitable at some level. Giving has been happening for millenia , long before charitable tax deductions. MORE

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Fundraising strategy appeal letters charitable giving consideration process copy writing tips fundraising tips planned giving copy writingI was a Journalism major. Actually, that was a huge accident. I really wanted to be a Business Major. My dad was an entrepreneur. MORE

The post New Data: 2013 Charitable Giving Report [Infographic] appeared first on MarketSmart. Great news! Giving was up, up and away in 2013. Here’s Blackbaud’s infographic that simplifies their findings. MORE

One would think people employed in the ‘charitable sector’ would understand the law of reciprocity. Every marketing channel needs to be optimized and employed properly. Sadly most fundraisers are using email the wrong way. Email should NOT be used primarily for fundraising. Rather it should be used mostly to build engagement. It should be used to tell stories, involve supporters, report back how gifts were used and make them feel good … not so much for asking. MORE

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I attended a local monthly planned giving event a while back and learned a lot about how not to market charitable gift annuities. MORE

I love my staff!! They are so thoughtful! They figured that some of our thousands of blog subscribers might want a super-concise book of my best blog posts. So, they went through all of my posts from 2015 and pulled the blog posts that generated the highest response rates from all of you. MORE

Fundraising Major Giving charitable giving cultivation for major gifts major donor fundraising major donors major gift cultivation major gift fundraising major gift fundraising blog major gift fundraising strategy major gift fundraising strategy major gift fundraising best practices major gift marketing major givingHere are six of the biggest reasons why you don’t get major gifts from people with capacity: 1. MORE

The one piece of data I was particularly interested to see was the proportion of charitable donations now reported as coming online, as this is a common question amongst organisations reviewing their fundraising activity and robust benchmark data is typically difficult to find. Over the last few months a combination of client workload, a shoulder op, and a house renovation project have unfortunately left me no time at all for blogging. MORE

I love Shark Tank , the reality TV show that features a panel of potential venture capitalists (“sharks”) evaluating aspiring entrepreneurs product/business ideas. I watch it with my kids! MORE

According to GivingUSA's press release: Overall charitable giving in the USA last year was $358.38 For me, the biggest take away from this report is what hasn't changed : individuals still gave the vast majority of all charitable donations! The post Charitable giving grows again! MORE

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My only question this morning: “Is all this really happening?” First, my inbox and social media was bombarded with news that somewhere between 3:20 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. Friday a 70 year-old man with 5 children went ape s**t on Twitter, slut-shaming Miss Universe of 1996. MORE

Fundraising Major Giving Planned Giving strategy best practices for planned giving charitable giving tips donor retention donor study fundraising tips legacy gift marketing major gift fundraising strategy“Content is money!” ” That’s what Abila says. MORE

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Last week Blackbaud released it’s annual Charitable Giving Report , and the findings may surprise you. Fundraising Infographics Nonprofits Online Fundraising 2013 Charitable Giving Report Blackbaud giving online fundraising philanthropy MORE

John Jensen (Sharpe Group) stood up and gave everyone a thorough dissertation on the dangers of using the words “guaranteed” and “investment” in your charitable gift annuity marketing. MORE

Fundraising Planned Giving charitable gift annuity fundraising tips legacy gift marketing legacy giftsGenerate leads using social norms, family reminders and non-death-related packages. Social norms = “Many of our supporters have done this too!” MORE

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The working theory,” I wrote in a June 2009 post , “was that people ‘catch’ one another’s emotions…something that’s been shown again and again in many other studies… but which had never been applied to charitable appeals.” MORE

charitable giving increased for the fourth consecutive year in 2013. The latest Giving USA report was released today, showing that total U.S. Overall giving grew 4.4% last year to an estimated $335.17 billion, with donations from individuals driving much of the growth that sees giving inching closer to pre-recession levels. Some highlights: Giving by individuals increased by 4.2%, while corporate giving declined by 1.9%. Individual giving made up 72% of total contributions in 2013. MORE

All of us have been there. Sometimes we find ourselves stuck in situations that just plain suck! Think yours is worse than someone else’s? Think again. Many felt that Jim Thorpe, a Native American from Oklahoma, was the greatest athlete of the 20th century. MORE

Are you confused by that headline? Here’s what I mean: I think it would be interesting for us to test allowing donors the opportunity to decide how much of their donation goes toward overhead. MORE

to be exact. That’s a key finding in Blackbaud’s just-released 2010 Online Giving Report. For this purpose, online giving is measured against total fundraising revenue reported to the IRS by organizations studied. The Report includes 24 months of online giving data from 1,812 nonprofit organizations from The Blackbaud Index of Online Giving, online major giving data from 2,190 nonprofits, and both online and offline data representing $5.1 MORE

For instance, some of the worst words for planned gift marketing are: Bequest; Charitable Gift Annuity; and Remainder Interest Deed. Last year I worked with Dr. Russell James to present his findings in the ground-breaking webinar titled Words that Work (get the quick-read eBook here ). MORE

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This means charitable giving showed a 3.5% This is the 3rd consecutive year since the depths of the Great Recession that has seen charitable giving grow. This is a big deal because between 2007 and 2009, charitable giving in the USA dropped 15% ! MORE