Have you taken a long, hard look at your Annual Fund lately?  For many organizations, that can be a painful process.  However, painful as it may be, carefully analyzing what is going on with your Annual Fund is the first step in turning things around.  And, I don’t mean just how much is being contributed, [...]

Although we now know that the Great Recession ended in June of 2009, the felt effects of the recession continue to be seen in painfully slow economic growth and the public’s pessimism about the economic future.  This sense of malaise also extends to philanthropy, of course.  If the donors don’t feel prosperous, they have a [...]

The National Bureau of Economic Research told us last week that the Great Recession actually ended in June 2009.  Happy days are here again!  Fundraisers can finally breathe a sigh of relief, kick back and wait for the gifts to roll in like they did three years ago. If you believe that, I have a [...]

So, how’s your Annual Fund doing?  These days, that might be an uncomfortable question to answer since, as Target Analytics’ own study has found, fewer individuals contributed to colleges in 2009.  And, among those who did give, amounts were lower than given previously.  While annual fund participation has been dropping for a few years now, [...]

One of the first things I did when I was a researcher was to develop checklists. Regardless if your job is primarily prospect research, you will be multi-tasking with your organization. Developing and using checklists will only make your life easier. I suggest creating a variety of checklists associated with each level …

I wanted to share a great article that came out this week from the Fundraising Success  Advisor newsletter.  This is part 1 of a three-part series based on a session at DMA’s 2010 New York Nonprofit Conference held in August and feautures our very own ProspectResearch.com contributor, Lawrence Henze. Part 2 will run in next week’s edition of [...]

I heard a great prospecting success story the other day and I thought I would share it.  Now, this story has nothing to do with how likely someone may look to make a gift, what their past giving or relationship to you might be, or even what someone or something has calculated a prospect’s capacity [...]

Having worked or volunteered in small development shops or even small research shops we know that we carry many hats. It is hard to find a non-profit professional that does multi-task on many levels. Tracking important data is one of those key functions that all non-profits should be doing at some level. I believe there [...]

There’s been talk recently about the value of donor profiles in our non-profit communications.  Often we see them employed as a tactic to cultivate our constituents to make legacy (or planned) gifts.  The question under discussion:  “Do donor profiles work to encourage or inspire others to make similar gifts?”  The answer varies.  Consider these points [...]

It’s not every day that we receive a gift from a small to midsize private foundation.  When it occurs, it usually is unsolicited and unexpected, yet a delightful surprise. Once you discover that someone connected to your organization has a private foundation, you can use the 990-PF that is required to be filed with the [...]