BLOGS & ARTICLES
Fundraising
The Donor Cycle
Thoughts from the Founder
Fundraising Growth Now!
New Podcast Episode
Stop It!
Changes for 2024 - Part 1
Highlights from this Podcast:
Individual Giving is shifting toward fewer, larger donors.
Relationship development is crucial, but can be simple.
Hiring fundraising staffing is challenging.
Changes for 2024 - Part 2
Highlights from this Podcast:
Leverage existing assets.
Prioritize data-driven fundraising strategies.
Take a collaborative approach.
Properly Setting Fundraising Goals
Highlights from this Podcast:
Do’s: Know your organization, benchmark wisely, engage stakeholders, diversify revenue streams, and track and adjust
Don’ts: Set unrealistic goals, neglect data analysis, forget donor relationships, underestimate costs, and ignore feedback
Common Errors: Failure to align fundraising goals with organization strategic plan, chasing after quick wins, and the “spray and pray”
Expanding the Annual Fund Donor Base
Highlights from this Podcast:
Adopt the mindset of getting donors, keeping donors, and increasing donors every single day.
Build your donor base through best practices like focusing on your consumers, segment and personalize your stories and other communications, and looking for opportunities beyond transactions to connect with donors.
Avoid a number of pitfalls, like overlooking donor retention and ignoring donor feedback. Successful growth programs don’t limit relationships to transactions, nor do they fail to adapt to available technology.
Whose Patron Is It, Anyway?
Highlights from this Podcast:
Collaboration can be difficult. From misaligned goals to communication breakdowns to scarcity of resources, it is tempting to focus on just what we need to do to meet our own goals.
Collaboration with our marketing or fundraising counterparts will pay off. By establishing a shared vision, scheduling regular opportunities to strategize and coordinate, and sharing data and measuring success together, we can achieve more than we would on our own.
Get started by being sincere and consistent in adopting a Patron-Centric approach, prioritizing personalized communication and engagement strategies, and finding easy opportunities to work together.
Hiring Fundraising Staff
Highlights from this Podcast:
Challenges abound when hiring new development staff, including fierce competition for experienced development staff, arts fundraising is unique, and limited resources for offering competitive salary and benefits package.
Ineffective recruitment techniques include relying solely on general job board postings, ignoring internal candidates, focusing on technical skills rather than relationship-building acumen, inadequate onboarding support for new hires, and approaching hiring as a one-time event rather than an ongoing process.
Successful approaches include starting with clearly defining the role and responsibilities you seek, leveraging networks and partnerships, using a comprehensive recruitment process, investing in new staff once hired, and fostering a culture of collaboration and appreciation.
Stop Treating Board Members Like A.I.
Highlights from this Podcast:
A portion of our organization’s board members are barely present or missing entirely. How would things change if we asked ourselves what we have done to contribute to the lack of board engagement, and what we can do to make it better?
Board members face barriers while attempting to serve. Clearly defined expectations, defined interest, experience, communication, understanding, mentorship, and partnership are often missing. Leadership, both volunteer and staff, have a responsibility to help remove these barriers.
Board members don’t just govern the organization, they are a valuable resource that, when fully coached, activated, and informed, provide irreplaceable value to the fundraising program.
Err on the Side of Asking: Overcoming Hesitation in Fundraising
Highlights from this Podcast:
When we hesitate to ask donors for their support, we often hide behind one of three reasons - it’s concerns about the donor, the organization, or the asker.
Erring on the side of asking doesn't mean being reckless, but is instead about challenging our hesitations, exploring “why now” might be the right time, and delaying only when there are legitimate reasons.
Asking good, open-ended questions while you consider the solicitation timing will provide thoughtful and informed creativity that often leads to making the solicitation in an earlier timeframe.
A Few Favorite Quotes to Amuse and Inspire
Highlights from this Podcast:
I like clever sayings, fun sayings, and sayings that help me remember to be focused and effective. So today I’m going to share ten of my favorite sayings – most of which I use regularly. I thought it might be fun to describe the saying, and tell you where I heard it and what it means to me, especially when applied to fundraising in the arts. I hope you like these, too, and that you find some value and application in hearing them.
The Power of Sharing Stories
Highlights from this Podcast:
Traditionally, organizations depended upon compelling narratives to inspire donations. These stories often centered around the organization's mission, vision, impact, and the significance of its supporting cultural endeavors. While effective, they often lacked that personal connection to the donor.
In recent years, there’s been a shift towards the power of sharing stories. This approach goes beyond just telling a story; it's about fostering meaningful conversations and genuine connections between donors and our beloved arts organizations.
Listen as we delve deeper into the power of sharing stories in fundraising for the arts on today’s podcast.
Adapting Fundraising Fundamentals to the Changing Arts Environment
Highlights from this Podcast:
RSC’s fundraising coaching approach uses time-tested best practices to help our clients reliably grow their fundraising programs. Yet, even tried and true methods must be regularly evaluated to adapt to present-day realities. Tactics have to change with the times so they don’t lose their effectiveness.
Listen as Bob Swaney and Catherine Heitz New discuss how arts fundraising is changing, and how we can adapt to improve results.
Excuses or Reality? Getting to the Heart of Donor Objections
Highlights from this Podcast:
Join us as we tackle a topic that every fundraiser has faced at some point: excuses for not making a major philanthropic gift. We’ll review the top ten reasons we often hear and, more importantly, what arts organizations can do to be more persuasive. We’re also going to get honest about what those reasons might truly indicate, even though they remain unspoken by your donors.
Selling Your Story - Part 1
Highlights from this Podcast:
Let’s explore the art of messaging—specifically, how to talk to major donors in a way that resonates, inspires, and ultimately secures their support.
A well-crafted message can transform a hesitant prospect into a passionate advocate. But the wrong words can shut down a conversation before it even starts. Let’s look at how to get it right, from crafting a strong case statement and defining who it is for, to understanding the messages to amplify and the ones to avoid.
Selling Your Story - Part 2
Highlights from this Podcast:
Let’s explore the art of messaging—specifically, how to talk to major donors in a way that resonates, inspires, and ultimately secures their support.
A well-crafted message can transform a hesitant prospect into a passionate advocate. But the wrong words can shut down a conversation before it even starts. Let’s look at how to get it right, from crafting a strong case statement and defining who it is for, to understanding the messages to amplify and the ones to avoid.
A Few Quotes to Irritate and Discourage
Highlights from this Podcast:
In an earlier post, I shared a few of my favorite quotes—funny, smart, creative sayings that remind us to be our best, do our best, and forge onward.
But, like with all things, there’s another side to this coin. Today, I'm sharing a few of my LEAST favorite sayings — the ones I don’t use and discourage others from using. Get the scoop on when these sayings are used and why they counter good fundraising best practices in the arts.
The Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera’s Success Story
Highlights from this Podcast:
This week’s podcast takes a deep dive into the Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera’s success story. It’s a story that can’t be told often enough, as the organization moved from one teetering on the edge of insolvency in 2014 to one with a strong financial foundation and substantive community impact today. With subscriptions up by 45% and over $13 million in gifts and sponsorship raised, the SP&O has been transformed and looks forward to a sustainable and bright future.
To share this story, Bob is joined by Giuliano Kornberg, the SP&O’s CEO, and Paul Hogle, president and CEO of the Cleveland Institute of Music. Bob and Paul were part of the original organization recovery team for the SP&O, and both continue to work with the organization.
Stop Making Fear-Based Fundraising Decisions
Highlights from this Podcast:
Whether you’re a staff member or a Board volunteer, you know the pressure that comes with asking for money. That pressure can manifest in hesitation, overthinking, and a whole lot of “what ifs” with things that almost never happen.
I’ve got a “what if” for you: What if we confront those fears head-on, replace them with practical alternatives, and unlock the potential that’s already waiting for us?
We’ll cover six common, fear-based mistakes that fundraisers in the arts tend to make. I’ll also suggest some shifts in mindset, along with practical alternatives to help you move past those fears and take positive action.
Obsessing Over Other People’s Money
Highlights from this Podcast:
It's time we discuss a trap many arts organizations fall into — obsessing over other people's money.
We've all been in those meetings where someone drops a big name or points out a high-net-worth individual and says, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could just get them to give?” But chasing people with deep pockets but no interest in the arts is not the answer. It distracts us from meaningful opportunities and pulls us away from building lasting relationships with people who actually want them.
In this episode of Fundraising Growth Now!, we’ll discuss five reasons why this obsession isn't productive. Then, we'll flip it around and examine why we should focus on the people already passionate about what we do.
Giving Tuesday - Too Much Hype for Too Little Return?
Highlights from this Podcast:
When Giving Tuesday rolls around each year, nonprofits of all kinds buzz with energy, hopeful for a big day of donations. And who can blame them?
The day promises a sense of shared purpose and a break from the consumer-focused atmosphere of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Yet, for arts and cultural organizations, putting too much weight on Giving Tuesday can be fraught with potential pitfalls.
Today, we’ll outline five reasons why relying heavily on Giving Tuesday could be more of a setback than a windfall, and then finish with five alternative approaches that can create lasting support beyond just a single day.
The Do’s and Don’ts of Contributed Revenue Goal Setting
Highlights from this Podcast:
Let’s discuss setting informed and thoughtful contributed revenue goals for your Annual Fund. Doing this well usually requires a delicate balance between science and art—but never fantasy!
Your goals drive the financial engine and empower mission-driven programs, performances, and exhibitions, so they are too important to get wrong. Too often, organizations underestimate their potential or set their sights unrealistically high, leading to missed targets, underfunded projects, or overworked staff.
I’ll share the key do’s and don’ts of goal-setting so you can create realistic yet inspiring revenue objectives that galvanize your team and motivate your supporters.
Stop It!
Highlights from this Podcast:
Have you ever seen the classic Bob Newhart sketch, “Stop It,” where he tells a patient to stop unhelpful habits? He doesn’t offer long-winded advice or empathy, just repeatedly says, “Stop it!” It’s hilarious, but also painfully relatable for anyone in arts fundraising. Often, we slip into habits that hurt more than help. Sometimes the best advice isn’t nuanced – it’s just blunt.
So, in the spirit of Newhart, in this episode of Fundraising Growth Now!, we’ll visit seven common pitfalls for arts fundraising. And while each comes with a declaration to “stop it,” each inspires a “start it” geared to help you build healthier, more effective fundraising habits.