
Issue 267
Happy Tuesday, Fundraisers!
This week’s newsletter is here to help you strategize ahead of the busy giving season. From future-proofing your corporate giving strategy to building more emotionally intelligent donor conversations, these tips will help you connect with supporters in deeper, lasting ways. We’re also sharing tips on optimizing your year-end giving pages, boosting direct mail response, and keeping peer-to-peer fundraisers engaged all year. Dive in!
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Great Fundraising Posts
7 Tips to Future-Proof Your Corporate Giving Strategy
Soapbox Engage (Soapbox Engage)
Corporate giving is evolving faster than ever, offering nonprofits a wealth of opportunities to increase funding, awareness, and long-term partnerships. But what works today may not work a few years down the line. To truly future-proof your corporate giving strategy, your organization needs a plan that can adapt to shifting trends, technology, and donor expectations. In this guide, we’ll share seven actionable tips to help you do so.
Nonprofit Prospect Research: 3 Tips to Improve Your Process
Julia Claire Campbell (Marketing for the Modern Nonprofit)
As a nonprofit fundraising professional, you’re probably always looking for ways to boost your organization’s revenue generation efforts. One of the best ways to bring in larger gifts from more dedicated donors is to re-evaluate your approach to prospect research. In this blog post, Julia explores three tips for improving your prospect research process so you can find more high-impact donors for your mission.
Donor Visits That Matter: Designing Emotionally Intelligent Conversations
Bill Crouch (Market Smart)
A donor visit isn’t just a meeting. If done well, it’s a moment of transformation—for the donor and the mission. But fundraisers often treat these visits like scripted pitches or rushed check-ins. They enter with a nervous energy, and don’t utilize emotional intelligence. If you want your visits to create clarity, connection, and commitment, you need to design them around presence, curiosity, and empathy. Bill offers advice on how to do so in this blog post.
Winning Direct Mail Lifts: Where to Invest to Improve Response
Jeff Brooks (Moceanic)
People often say “spend more to get more.” But what more should you be spending on? And what exactly will it get you? In this blog post, Jeff offers advice on where exactly you can spend more to improve your direct mail campaigns.
Optimize Your Soapbox Engage Giving Pages for Year-End Fundraising
Soapbox Engage (Soapbox Engage)
The 2025 year-end giving season is shaping up to be one of the most competitive and opportunity-filled periods nonprofits have seen in years. Organizations that prepare their donation pages now will be best positioned to capture generosity before December 31. In this post, we’ll walk through five key features to activate before year-end.
3 Strategic Tips for Meaningful Board Discussions That Drive Impact
Gail Perry (Gail Perry Group)
A board of directors at your nonprofit can be transformational, when properly utilized. But oftentimes at board meetings, strategic discussions are sidelined and the conversation is only about updates. This blog post from Gail Perry Group features tips that consistently lead to effective board discussions.
The Unseen Effort Behind Big Fundraising Wins
Joe Garecht (Garecht Fundraising Associates)
Sometimes, you may think that other nonprofits are just lucky. You see them pull off big “wins” like raising $1 million on a giving day, or continuously receiving new grants and wonder why you can’t pull that off. The truth is that most big fundraising wins don’t come from luck; they come from persistence and consistency. In this blog post, Joe shares advice on how to set your nonprofit up for big successes.
Peer-to-Peer Fundraiser Cultivation: How to Keep Participants Engaged All Year
Molly Fast (NonProfitPro)
Some of the most important and impactful work we can do as fundraisers has to do with year-round peer-to-peer fundraiser cultivation. We must make participants feel valued regardless of how much money they raise or how many teammates they recruit. When you consistently show them they matter, they’ll be more motivated and more willing to step up when it’s time to ask. In this post, Molly offers a few simple, effective ways to cultivate those relationships outside of typical event touch points.
Meet Your Most Common Donor
Kevin Schulman (The Agitator)
Amongst donors, there are common patterns that show up—such as giving only once a year. You may try to strategize around changing those patterns. But in this blog post, Kevin explains how that behavior isn’t an example of disengagement, but discipline that should be respected.