You know those uber-organized people who keep color-coded calendars, never show up late, and fill the cracks in their day with productive tasks? An admirable group. Many of us, however, haven’t yet reached their madreiga. Leaders are often visionaries – creative, innovative, big-picture thinkers. Keeping track of nitty-gritty practical details isn’t always our strong suit. But there’s... Read more »
A while back, while fundraising for a kiruv project geared for American Jewish students, I decided to do something out-of-the-box. The American fundraising landscape is filled with Jewish (or Jew-ish) philanthropic foundations. Most of them weren’t established to fund your typical Torah learning program. But I wanted to conduct a little experiment. I wanted to... Read more »
It’s a thorn-in-the-side challenge for everyone who needs to fundraise. On the one hand, you don’t want to sound needy. Even though you… are. Your organization has a need that must be filled, or you can’t continue your work. Yet you don’t want to sound like a schlimazel. You want to sound confident! On the... Read more »
Consistency. A middah worth millions. And a rather difficult one to master. We’ve all achieved consistency in some areas of our lives. Eating. Davening. Daf Yomi. Hanging our coats on that hook in the hall. So we know we can do it. And we also know that if we’d master consistency in our fundraising –... Read more »
Today, we’re going to take a little trip into your donor’s head. Why, you ask? Because as uniquely crucial as your organization is, to your donors… it’s just another uniquely crucial organization. One of many they support every year. You can’t fully control how much attention your donors give to you over others. But you... Read more »
Jewish leaders – I’m in awe. Over the past two years, you’ve caught curveball after curveball, showing tremendous resilience as you reinvented yourselves time and again. You’ve shown massive strength. Yet there’s something that can make you stronger still. All Jewish leaders who built something significant in the past century had (at least) one trait... Read more »
Some people find writing easy. For others, every written communication takes real effort. Which group do you fit into? If you fit into “Group 2,” as the leader of your organization, you’re stuck. Part of your job likely includes written communication with your donors. Thank-you notes. Personal emails. Updates. Program reviews. You probably spend lots... Read more »
Do you know what’s ‘driving’ your best donors to donate? Today, I’m going to share a simple method to do just that. This way, you’ll be able to communicate with your donors more clearly… using language that appeals to them. And this will inspire them to donate MORE! It will also help you focus your... Read more »
If your donor tells you to expect a smaller donation this time, what do you do? Can you negotiate? Before I had the privilege of guiding others in their fundraising, I spent over a decade raising funds for some incredible organizations. Alongside seeing lots of hatzlacha, I did bump into failure plenty of times along... Read more »
Getting intro’s to new prospects is the most valuable way to grow your donor base. Intros accelerate both the access to prospects and the trust needed to speed up the time it takes for a prospect to become a donor. They’re 10x+ more effective than going in cold. You may be thinking – I’ve asked for intros and my donors... Read more »