Great point! Fundamentally fundraising is NOT sales-- it is connecting your donors/prospects to the organization in the manner most meaningful to them. Being donor-centric as a concept is easy to understand, but just like a great musician or athlete must have "reps" and practices time and time again, a fundraiser must have activity before they will have productivity. Learning comes from repetition. The more fundraising interactions, face-to-face or digital meetings you have, the more you develop almost an "algorithm" in your head. I have been on thousands of one-on-one donor appointments over the years and like a physician who has seen thousands of patients, you see patterns when you concentrate on the donor and their needs--not yours!

Tu causa, por más importante que te parezca, no le interesa a todo el mundo. Has de dirigirte solo a quienes son propicios. Para seleccionarlos, los criterios socio-demográficos (género, rango de edad, hábitat, etc.) pueden ser útiles. Pero a menudo son insuficientes. Sobre todo cuando la causa tiene un gran componente ideológico. En este caso hay que primar las variables psicográficas. Y para ello tienes que saber cuáles son las creencias, los valores, las motivaciones y las preferencias de los potenciales donantes. Si la organización ya cuenta con numerosos donantes, se puede investigar qué piensan y sienten para realizar perfiles psicológicos y buscar a sus "gemelos". A menos que se quiera buscar otro tipo de donantes que interesen más.

It is very key to really know your audience so you can create tailored strategies for them. What I find useful is to do a thorough stakeholder analysis of your target audience- know their priorities, values, preferred channels of engagement and then use this in-depth knowledge to create strategies that meet them where they are at. You can then convert them to believers in your mission.

Just like investing, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Diversify your techniques for raising funds. You need to appeal to current donors while also acquiring new donors. You need to have giving methods that are comfortable for older constituents as well as for younger ones. Cultivating a range of donors (some who give larger gifts and others that give more modest amounts) is important too. A mature fundraising plan, which will make you feel confident incorporates many different communication vehicles and ways to give.

People will look at a funder and just skim the webpage and they think they know everything about them. What you should do is research their mission statement and another partners I cannot express the importance of GuideStar as well. Another good tactic is to see what organizations were previously awarded .

So many times we see that people hit a roadblock in resources. What they don’t know is that you can always research partners and other like-minded individuals to help with needs maybe you’re stressed out because you’re understaffed well perhaps you have a volunteer resource that you may have overlooked. Can you bring out that can even bring in dollars.

So much can be lost in the every day shuffle of the office. One of the best tools is yourself and be highly organized map out everything in your calendar and add a Reminders. It’s also really good to set. Follow up email attachments so you know where you should be going. Microsoft also offers analytic tools through teams that can help in tracking and monitoring your goals.