Our Blog: The Calling
It’s not a job. It’s a calling and it’s in phone booths
that ordinary people don their capes and become
Super Heroes! That’s why we call our blog The Calling!
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Grant Seeking on a Dime
You can find grants that your organization can apply for without spending a lot of money on a database subscription. Here are several places to look –
It’s Not About Your Development Staff
When fundraising isn’t good, it is never [or almost never] simply the result of having an ineffective development professional. When fundraising isn’t strong, it’s because one or more of these things at your organization is broken, damaged, or failing. This isn’t to say that a good or bad fundraiser doesn’t matter; it’s simply that that isn’t the whole story (often it’s not even the biggest part of the story). The bad news here, also, is that a great fundraiser can’t fix fundraising when other fundamental organizational things are broken. Before you reach for a pink slip…
End of Year Advice for the Start of the 4th Quarter of the Year
Compared with the first half of 2018, giving in the first half of this year was :
Overall dollars raised: Down 7.3%
Number of donors: Down 5.8%
Gifts of $1k or more: Down 8.2%
Gifts of $250 – $999: Down 3.5%
This puts enormous pressure on the end of the year. So what can you do to ensure your year finishes strong? I’ve pulled together a collection of some of my best advice from prior blogs to help guide you to success.
8 Questions Fundraisers Can Ask to Avoid Taking a Bad Job: A Different Take on the Revolving Door Crisis
I wanted this week to write my blog not about how organizations can hang onto fundraisers but how fundraisers can avoid going to work in impossible situations in the first place. It’s tough for fundraising professionals to ferret out the truth in the interview process because everyone is going to tell you that their culture is fantastic, that their workplace is pleasant (“we’re all one big family,”) and that goals are reasonable. Here are 8 questions to ask to get to the heart of the matter…
![The [Fundraising] Help](https://secureservercdn.net/198.71.233.179/ygc.226.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/thehelp1080x608-400x250.jpg)
The [Fundraising] Help
“Are you going to look for a new fundraising job?” my mom, brother, husband, and best friends all want to know.
“I don’t know,” I’ve been answering. “I feel like a woman who has just gotten out of a bad marriage and doesn’t yet feel like going on a date.”
Donor Welcome Kits: Like a Warm Loaf of Homemade Bread
A few weeks ago, Russell and I visited a new church. As we were leaving the church, a church member gave us a loaf of homemade bread. What a nice welcome gift–nourishing, tasty, symbolic, thoughtful. This church did a great job of extending hospitality. We felt welcome. That’s what you want your donor to feel…
10 Reasons Clean Data Should Be Fundraising’s #1 New Year’s Resolution
Clean data: It doesn’t sound sexy. Yet, without it, you are wasting time and money. Here are some great reasons to spend some time on your donor database.
About me
Rebecca H. Davis, PhD, ACFRE, CFRE is a fundraising professional with more than 25 years of experience in nonprofit and academic settings.