The Little Words Mean the Most

REALLY good sign

 

 

 

 

in progress ~ "if there IS progress, he wondered ~ v27"

 

intro in progress

Welcome to the Institute's

"Certificate in Fundraising Copywriting"

online web course

 

We hope you will enjoy the coming four weeks and learn a lot.

Especially, we hope you'll apply what you learn here ruthlessly and religiously and LUCRATIVELY to your charity's fundraising.

Your second-guessing, opinion-heavy bosses and overlords are clueless.

But you knew that ... all too well!

This course breaks (shames anyway) that ignorance.

And superstar fundraisers? Learn and move on.

Tomorrow's fundraising (at least for the thriving) will be SO different.

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The REAL goal of this course from the Institute for Sustainable Philanthropy?

Ahern Tweet May 21, 2020:

Charities pay exorbitant attention to "major" donors.

Yet most charities totally suck mud when they wander into broad-base donor comms.

 

Course goal?

 

To move the lovely, ego-enhancing, emotionally-rewarding "major"-donor experience downstream to "the rest of us."

 

 

 

At age 72, as a writer, every word is Emitted.

Truth?

Most are Omitted, once sobriety has its hands on the wheel again.

At age 72, as a writer ~ in some small, profession-bound ways successful; unsuccessful in airport best-seller nor respectable academic ways ~ every word I utter is either truth or a gainfully employed lie.

Best I can do, DieDie.

Friend, Roger C., called it my "hustle."

What I do that no one except me can do just the same. Roger did extremely well by any normal material standard. He's worked hard. He's flauntingly entrepreneurial. He has a enviable house on the most expensive land on the planet.

AND ...  raised Quaker in a small business, he has the uncomplicated good heart of Bambi's mom and the swift intelligence of an alien space commander.

As Roger says, I have a hustle.

Mine is tissue thin. I just want to play with words. My ideal fate would be a long prison sentence, Scrabble, and lots of dictionaries.

 

#  #  #

 

It's not going well ... my boss wants more ...

 

Here's your good news: as yet, few fundraisers practice anything close to Donor-Centricity 3.0. You have no real competition.

            Honestly?

            Most fundraisers don't even practice Donor-Centricity 1.0, which arrived via Penelope Burk's book in 2003. There's an entire sub-category of fundraising specialists now tasked with "donor stewardship." I've spoken at their national conference. Most of their bosses, I suspect, have never heard of Ken Burnett's seminal 1990's book, Relationship Fundraising.

            What are the facts on the ground?

            As a for-hire auditor and author of 7 how-to (and decently researched) books on donor communications, I've looked at countless examples produced by fundraisers and their "approval overlords." Most are built to fail, not succeed. (That's good news as well: the opportunity to raise more in donations looms large for pretty much every charity.)

            Each year, in a consulting practice spanning decades, I'm asked to frankly (and without political constraints) evaluate charity efforts to persuade current donors and prospects.

            And as a backstop (because I hold a dismal opinion of opinion and conventional wisdom, including my own), I stay in touch (pretty much daily) with a network of expert, far-more-experienced colleagues around the English-speaking world.

            "We" evaluate everything: from brand-name international causes to large nonprofit hospital systems and universities to tiny (but delectable) local causes.

            Here's what I've learned in that time: charities that practice donor-centricity effectively are rare at any level ~ big, medium, small.

            YET charities that DO practice donor-centricity effectively can almost instantly raise twice as much in donations.

            Which offers your charity (of any size) a huge opportunity, if you're capable of executing Donor-Centricity 3.0 adequately. (Not brilliantly, you should know. This is NOT a high bar: adequate execution works just fine.)

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/certificate-in-fundraising-copywriting-tickets-101051790626

 

 

June 4: new 1.5 hour super webby for Kivi: Multichannel Preflight: Testing Your Fundraising Comms for Success/Failure BEFORE You Send Them Out

 

 

In March 2019, a quiet revolution in fundraising took place.

A handful of charities witnessed it. It happened in a small Scottish hotel named The Inch, overlooking Loch Ness. And in March 2020 it happened at The Inch again (just before planes stopped flying).

Both years, over 2.5 days (nurtured by exquisite meals), fundraisers from North America and Europe participated in a sold-out masterclass at The Inch. There, they heard psychologist Jen Shang and professor Adrian Sargeant explain 20 years of clever research.

At this point, you might well ask: Who?

Jen and Adrian co-founded the globe-trotting Institute for Sustainable Philanthropy, with offices in the UK and the US. The Institute accepts just six serious research clients a year. Its 2020 clients include Greenpeace Spain, USA for UNCHR, and Britain's revered Royal National Lifeboat Institution.

The Institute's proprietary research has one focus: how you — chief fundraiser, CEO, or donor-relations honcho — can BOOST your charity's donated revenue immediately ... and over the long-term. The Institute's research explores the deeper (psychologically-grounded) reasons why donors give, stay with, and increase giving to their so-called "favorite" charities.

Which brings us back to this question: Why would a fundraiser travel to some out-of-way place like Loch Ness, at huge expense, to listen to these two "pracademics" ("practical academics") lecture?

Because this masterclass made one simple promise: attendees would learn how to double their donations within a year or so.

And that promise came true.

One 2019 attendee, a US Christian aid charity working overseas, doubled giving in a year. Another 2019 attendee, a UK political action group, tripled giving.

 

Is YOUR charity ready to learn enough to be dangerously more successful?