Category: Strategy

By Laurence A. Pagnoni, MPA Social media, e-mail, big data; it’s clear that technology is changing the way we fundraise. This week’s guest video blog covers one piece of technology that I bet you haven’t considered: smart speakers. A longtime colleague of mine, Jay Frost, shares his video on how “smart speakers” like Siri and Alexa are providing new ways to fundraise. Have a look and, as always, I welcome your questions and comments:     We welcome your comments about this post on the LAPA blog.

By Laurence A. Pagnoni, MPA You may recall a recent article I wrote regarding donors contributing through their IRA and how it can help your year-end drive. Here is an example of one charitable organization, The Fellowship of Reconciliation, putting this advice to practice by sending their donors a short, simple e-mail: Ways to Give Smarter: Making A Contribution From Your IRA [Donor Name], Did you know that you can make a charitable contribution through your Roth IRA or traditional IRA? That’s right, and if you’re 70.5 or older, there are some added tax benefits to making your “Qualified Charitable Distribution”

By Laurence A. Pagnoni, MPA Donor surveys are powerful, yet underutilized. Do you know your donor’s age? If you intend on cultivating and engaging them, you must know their age. A donor survey can help you secure their DOB plus other vital information that you need. Donors commonly say they did not give again because they disliked the way they were asked. Don’t let this happen to your donor program. A donor survey can reveal their preferred means of communication (e.g., phone, text, e-mail, snail mail) as well as preferred times (evening, weekends). Then, integrate this information into your donor

By Laurence A. Pagnoni, MPA Never underestimate the human element in your wealth screening. All the prospect research in the world doesn’t outweigh the need to include the human element in your wealth screen. Fundraising is a relationship business. Getting to meet your donors to learn about them is crucial for cultivation and solicitation, and yet securing meetings is often harder than securing gifts! We often don’t know where to begin in securing a meeting. We ask other donors or our trustees, and they too are puzzled. Many stakeholders don’t have a direct connection to the donor. Instead, it’s often

By Laurence A. Pagnoni, MPA What does “donor research” and “wealth-screening” mean to you? This three-part series examines the latest in donor research in three critical areas: 1. The value of screening your entire donor database; 2. Tips on what’s new about wealth screening so that you can “sell” it; and 3. The value of relationship science to connect with donors. Part I may be read here. Part II: Making the Sell Modern wealth-screening focuses more on philanthropy, what a donor actually is giving to charity, not just fixed assets. In the past, wealth-screening overly relied on fixed assets, such

By Laurence A. Pagnoni, MPA The advent of online applications doesn’t mean you no longer have to talk to a funder. Many grant-makers, especially the independents and family foundations, don’t have Web sites and electronic portals. Large, bureaucratic foundations that have gone paperless often have online forms that are so long and involved, you might want to talk to them, if possible, just to determine if it’s worth your while to apply. So here’s what you need to extract from a phone conversation with a funder. 1. Identify the best person to talk to. If the party on the other