3 Questions to Ask Yourself When You’re Building Your Annual Fundraising Plan
For many of us fundraisers, we’re not far off that magical time of the year: planning season. The time of year when we evaluate this year’s progress and learnings, decide what to stop, start, and continue next year, and develop our all-important budgets and projections. If annual planning isn’t your jam – or you don’t […]
Testing for fundraising campaigns: How to get results you can rely on
If there’s one thing that I’ve learned in my 10+ years working in the charitable sector, it is: You are not your donor. It can be a hard truth, I know! But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what I like, what you like, or what your CEO likes; it matters what […]
How To Build A Fundraising Story Bank In 7 Easy Steps
Even though this blog about how to build a fundraising story bank is coming up on five years old, it’s still as relevant as ever. I believe that stories are the most persuasive tool in our box when we tell them right. It’s also been our experience at Good Works that our clients who can generate […]
The 5-Word Legacy: what are YOUR five words?
In a bit of insight often attributed to both Hemingway and Banksy (but probably originating from neither artist), there’s an idea that we die three times – not once. The first death occurs when you take your last breath. The second death happens when your funeral or celebration of life takes place. The third – […]
New Year Resolutions for Fundraisers in 2022
Ok, I realize I’m a little late to the game in sharing resolutions for 2022, but one of MY resolutions was to be a bit more “chill” this year (as my husband would put it). So instead of stressing about my resolution-sharing-tardiness, I’m going to dedicate this post to the fundraisers who are still recovering […]
How To Analyze Your Direct Mail Performance in 2021
So, how did your direct mail program do this year? That’s the question that’s on every mail fundraiser’s mind as we head into the final stretch of year-end. Gifts are being processed, cheques are being opened, digital campaigns are being scheduled – and through it all, we’re watching to see: Will we hit our targets […]
Should you use Facebook’s dynamic creative for your next fundraising campaign?
It’s officially November, which means fundraisers everywhere are gorging on discount Halloween candy and feverishly finalizing their year-end campaigns. And with multi-channel integration being the name of the game these days, charities of every shape and size are learning how to use social media to connect and communicate with their donors. Thus, while Facebook’s dynamic […]
A 7-point guide to kick-starting your mid-level program!
If like me you’ve been a fundraiser for a while, you’ve heard mid-level donor and mid-level giving program come up a few times in the last few years. But there is so much information out there, how do you make sense of it all? Fear not! My hard-won, 7-step guide to kick-starting your mid-level program […]
Storytelling in Fundraising: A Guide for Skeptics
It may surprise you, but there are professionals in the charitable sector who think using a storytelling approach in fundraising is a bunch of gobbledygook. Are you clutching your pearls? That was my reaction, too. A few years back someone from an unnamed charity told me that they don’t use stories because they didn’t want […]
A Quick Refresher on Loving Your Donors
You are likely far from embracing the fall and you’re hopefully still in denial that winter soon follows. But as a fundraiser, I know that you’re already well down the path of planning your fall and dare I say it, holiday giving campaigns. We work on the same schedule as Costco, always a couple of […]