Blogs
Blogs
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Building Lasting Relationships: Engaging Donors Beyond the Gift
Congratulations, fundraiser! You found a prospect and discovered their needs, interests, and ability to give. You created a great presentation, overcame donor objections, asked for a gift and…BAM, you got the gift and turned that prospect into a donor! Now the challenge is keeping their support and moving them to a higher giving level. The…
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Fundraising Events Don’t Raise Money — They Trigger It
Walk out of almost any gala, and you’ll hear the same question: “How much did we raise tonight?” It sounds right. It feels right. But it misses what is really happening. Because the event didn’t raise money. The donor’s decision did. At some point during the evening, a guest made a choice — to move…
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The Relationship Advantage: Using Cause Selling to Retain Major Gifts
Let’s face it: fundraising is a high-stakes game. Competition is steep, and the strategies behind major gift fundraising have shifted completely. I know this firsthand from spending the bulk of my career as a major gifts fundraiser and then transitioning into advising high-net-worth individuals on their charitable giving.
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From Connection to Commitment: Applying the Cause Selling Cycle to Everyday Fundraising
In fundraising, it is easy to fall into the trap of seeing gifts as transactions: a donation is made, a gift acknowledgment letter is sent, and the focus shifts immediately to the next solicitation. But the Fundraising Academy Cause Selling Cycle reminds us that successful fundraising is a relationship-focused, continuous, and donor-centered process. The goal…
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Keep Donors Coming Back: Data-Backed Retention
Donor retention is what turns one-time generosity into a sustainable community of support. But across the sector, retention has hovered around 43%, and first-time donor retention can dip as low as 19%. Bloomerang’s Mission Retainable research — based on a November 2024 survey of more than 380 fundraisers and 1,000 donors — helps explain why…