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A recent stroll through my garden reminded me of a lesson from Dr. Henry Cloud in his book, “Necessary Endings.“  In it, Dr. Cloud offers a great analogy related to the need for pruning to stimulate healthy growth.

Recently I was enjoying lunch with a client team. At one point in the animated conversation, one of the development staff handed a card to her colleague. It was a simple white business card with only two words:

While flying the friendly skies has become a routine part of my life, I still don’t take safety for granted (code for, “I am still afraid”). Like most folks, I pay little attention to the pre-flight safety instructions, but I do look for the nearest exit and – if seated in an exit row – which way to throw the window in the event of an emergency.

I often tell clients that I wish I could make this work sound more complicated. After all, they’ve brought me in to talk to their team about a campaign that will be vital to the organization’s future. Surely I must have complicated graphs and algorithms to make it all work? When it comes right down to it though, fundraising tactics are really quite simple.

For the longest time I avoided giving gift cards as presents. It seemed like such an impersonal gesture. I had visions of the recipients stuffing all their newly acquired gift cards into their wallets and heading off to the mall without a single thought as to who gave them what card or attaching any kind of significance or meaning to them other than the dollar value encoded on the magnetic strip.

At a recent conference, we had the privilege of presenting the advanced session on endowment development. The session was for staff and volunteers with 15+ years of financial development experience and for those who knew the basics of endowment development.

Last week, we started a discussion about what to do when you find your campaign at the bottom of the dip and stalled. There are four key elements to every campaign – case, leadership, prospects and a plan. Today we’ll consider the importance of prospects and a plan.

Rarely does a week go by without a phone call from someone who is tired, frustrated and defeated. They’re worried their campaign is “stalled.” Before you can adequately diagnose the issue with your campaign, you must first have the courage to hit the pause button. Take the time to determine if you need to stop the campaign or simply relaunch. 

Unlocking the mystery of donor prospect identification comes down to one simple question: WHO REALLY CARES?

“Nobody really goes hungry in America.”