by Richard Perry and Jeff Schreifels | Jan 27, 2021 | decline, entropy, Relationships | Communication, Cultivation, Stewardship
Here’s a reality you must deal with in your mid, major and planned gift work. Everything, and I mean everything, is in decline and moving toward disorder. This is the law of entropy. The minute you start a relationship with a donor, it trends toward decline. Decline...
by Richard Perry and Jeff Schreifels | Jan 20, 2021 | Capital Campaigns, donor relationships, multi-year pledges | Cultivation, Transformational Gift
A donor finishes completing a multi-year pledge to your organization. What do you do? Or you finish a capital campaign, all the pledges are in – what’s next? Unfortunately, you’re too late if you’re asking those questions now. Richard and I get asked those two...
by Richard Perry and Jeff Schreifels | Dec 9, 2020 | prospecting, unresponsive donors | Communication, Cultivation, Philanthropy
You’ve been in this situation before. You’re trying to get the attention of a specific person but, try as you might, they don’t respond. They don’t even acknowledge that you’re there. Not a turn of the head. Not even a glance. Nothing. What do you do when that...
by Richard Perry and Jeff Schreifels | Oct 9, 2020 | Major Gift Officers, Non-Profit Leadership | Communication, Cultivation, Value Attrition
You may have heard something that goes like this: “Our non-profit is so unique that it just doesn’t appeal to a wide audience of major donors, and I don’t think we can raise a lot of money for our cause from individuals.” Richard and I hear this so often from...
by Richard Perry and Jeff Schreifels | Sep 23, 2020 | Email, Media, texting | Communication, Cultivation, Stewardship
“What types of communications are most effective for stewarding major donors?” That’s the question Jeff and I were recently asked. The answer is surprisingly simple: Communication media that match the preferences of the donor. What has your donor told you about how...
by Richard Perry and Jeff Schreifels | Sep 21, 2020 | Plan for every donor | Cultivation, Passions and Interests, Planning
Stop and take a look at the plan you’ve made for one of your active caseload donors. Note how you’ve organized it – for most people, it’s linear. In other words, it goes from today through a bunch of future actions and, somewhere in there, there’s an ask. This is...