Fundraising is changing!  Everything is shifting these days.

Major donors are still not quite sure they trust you.

Donors are changing too. Post-recession donors really are different!

Are you changing your own fundraising strategies to keep up with donors’ newest attitudes and preferences?

Fundraising is recovering nicely now that the recession is over.

And since 87% of all gifts come from individuals –either thru bequests, family foundations or outright gifts, let’s track the wants and needs of these donors today.

Charitable gifts were up 3% last year, and wealthy individuals led most of that increase. 

Here are my Top 10 Major Donor Trends for 2014-15. See if you can ride these fundraising trends to major fundraising success in the coming year or two!

Article Compliment of: https://www.gailperry.com

By Harvey McKinnon 

Mrs. Steele was called to jury duty but declined to serve, stating, “I don’t believe in capital punishment.”

The judge explained. “Madam, this isn’t a murder trial,” he said. “It’s simply a case in which a woman is suing her husband. He’s accused of taking the $5,000 she gave him to buy a diamond necklace and donating it to charity.”

“I’ll serve,” agreed Mrs. Steele. “I could be wrong about capital punishment.”

How quickly our minds can change when we get more information.

To the question “Why should I be interested in your particular cause?” many have a ready answer. “Because we do good work,” they say. Undoubtedly true, but countless organizations do good work.

As I make clear in my book, The 11 Questions Every Donor Asks, you need to distinguish yourself from the thousands of other great causes.

I often ask people attending my workshops to tell me their unique selling proposition (USP). What is the one thing that sets their respective organizations apart from all the others?

Your USP could be many things: your history, your leadership, your accomplishments, your low administrative costs, even the nature of your appeal (e.g., “Your gift of $25 will save an area of the Amazon Rainforest forever”).

Dig deep enough, and every organization has a distinguishing feature.

Article Compliment of: https://trust.guidestar.org/

A fundraising campaign is one of the easiest ways to help a loved one in need. If you have a friend or family member in need of financial and emotional support, starting a fundraising page is a wonderful way to bring together communities of people willing to help.

With GiveForward, starting a fundraising campaign only takes minutes, and we’ve outlined the steps for how to start one below:

Article Compliment of: http://www.giveforward.com/

Raising money for a charitable or nonprofit organization is always a challenge, whether in good times or bad. But you can make it easier for your nonprofit if you learn about all the different methods of fundraising, and choose those that are truly best suited to your organization.

When reviewing your options, try not to rely on only one type of fundraising, especially if it means depending on sources that could dry up all at once, such as government or foundation grants. By the same token, scattering efforts and trying every type of fundraising method simultaneously is a recipe for trouble. The wise nonprofit will carefully plan an array of fundraising methods to employ in the coming one to five years, based on its internal strengths and assets.

Article Compliment of: http://www.nolo.com/

Developing a Fundraising Strategy

A fundraising strategy identifies the financial and other expectations of your institution and outlines the activities, time scales and resources that are needed to meet these expectations. It is a working document that evolves as circumstances change, but it typically takes a forward view of three to five years.

Article Compliment of: http://www.case.org/

Corporate fundraisers are a great way to solicit extra funding for special work projects, or even for corporate sponsored humanitarian causes. They can be black tie formal, or down to earth informal. Long Island hosts a variety of great locations that are perfect for your next fundraiser. To find out which one best suits your needs, follow the guide below:

Article Compliment of: http://www.longislandcateringhalls.com/

Everyone needs a helping hand sometimes. And no matter how deep their pockets are, most people have been faced with a situation where they’ve had to raise a large sum of funds before. If you’ve ever had to do it, you know that sorting out how to raise money as well as the fundraising process is no walk in the park.

So for all you first-time fundraising organizers, or anyone who just feels lost or overwhelmed with figuring out how to raise money, GiveForward has come up with some steps to successful fundraising.

Article Compliment of: http://www.giveforward.com/

In our previous post we took a look at how Australian development NGO expenditure has changed over the last decade, focusing in on the dramatic increase in fundraising expenditure. At the aggregate level, the recent rapid scale-up in fundraising effort has not been matched by a commensurate increase in public giving to NGOs. Fundraising efficiency has declined: since 2006/07 public donations received for each fundraising dollar spent has fallen from $8 to $5.30.

These figures say nothing of how individual NGOs are performing. In today’s post, we’ll take a look at the fundraising patterns of these individual NGOs. Readers can also explore the expenditure and revenue of individual NGOs over the past decade for themselves in the interactive dataset available at the end of this post.

Article Compliment of: http://devpolicy.org/

We get it: a smart repertoire of fundraising ideas is hard to come by despite its importance to success. With that in mind, GiveForward wants to help you with our carefully curated list of 17 tips and tricks on how to make your next fundraiser more successful – we picked them up along the way from people like you!

Article Compliments of: http://www.giveforward.com/

Here are some innovative ideas to put the FUN back into fundraising for your child’s school

1. A Night with the Stars

Children arrive at school just before sunset, there’s lots of excitement and chatter and the smell of popcorn and hotdogs fills the air. Just like at a movie theatre, the pre-purchased tickets are handed in at the door and moviegoers make their way to their seats, the school hall is darkened and the big screen flickers into action. You can make this a themed night by showing some children’s favourites like High School Musical or a Disney classic, children are encouraged to dress-up as their favourite character and the hall is decorated according to the theme. An all-night movie marathon on the school field is also a great option for hot summer nights. You’ll need to get permission from the movie’s distributor before your big showing.

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Article written by: Chareen Boake

Article Source http://www.childmag.co.za