Nonprofit News

Updated, accurate prospect and donor data supports campaign and major gift success. Understanding where your prospects are in the relationship management cycle, their philanthropic capacity, and recent giving can inform important strategies to get you closer to your goals.

As you plan and execute a fundraising initiative or campaign, prospect and donor data will play a critical role in each phase of the process—and our fundraising planning software Beam Insights can help you along the way. Beam Insights analyzes information from your database and displays it in an easy-to-understand format.

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Successful fundraising balances the art of persuasion and the science of behavior. The art, crafting a compelling case for support that can persuade a potential donor to invest, complements the science, understanding the donor’s giving patterns, interests, and financial capacity to give.

The art is learned over time as a fundraiser grows in their experience; the science, especially in understanding donor capacity, is right at our fingertips—we just need to know how to find it. Data analytics is at the heart of understanding donor capacity, and you do not have to be a data expert to access this information.

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As our sector continues to navigate new challenges, the Campbell & Company team has paused to reflect on our own best practices and strategies. We recommend taking the time to evaluate your internal structures and systems, including your database. In this spirit, we encourage you to ask: “Are we managing our data effectively?”

While most nonprofits track data on their constituents, like donor bios and giving history, simply collecting that information isn’t enough. It may even waste time as you sift through pages of data entries. Without effective data management, you miss out on insights that could lead to better understanding and, ultimately, better fundraising.

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In recent weeks, every nonprofit organization in the country has grappled with new challenges. While these challenges differ from sector to sector and from region to region, for most organizations, business as usual is no longer possible.

With that in mind, your fundraising strategies don’t need to be put on pause, but they do need to shift. Outreach to your top supporters should keep happening (over the phone and videoconferencing) with strategies that reflect the current moment. Simultaneously, organizations that have the bandwidth should plan for what comes next, identifying prospects to cultivate now for asks later.

For most organizations, the challenge will be using limited resources effectively. To rise to the moment, we recommend a three-stage process—get ready, get set, go!—which any organization can execute in as little as three weeks. While this process will involve your entire team, success will allow you to secure gifts now and build capacity for the long term.

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A great deal has changed over the last two months, and our schools have been the epicenter of so much upheaval and adaptation. As development professionals, we need to support our independent school communities by checking in, asking for feedback, involving volunteers where we can, and helping to plan culmination celebrations.

While we steward our communities today, we also need to prepare for a 2020-2021 school year that is shaping up to look very different from the past. Below, we walk through several ways you can manage uncertainty and set the stage for a successful year, from new family engagement to fundraising planning.

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Fundraisers are adapting quickly to these unprecedented times—adjusting fundraising strategies, recalibrating goals, and engaging prospects creatively. At the same time, boards and volunteer leaders want to know how organizations are accounting for the current climate.

What is the projected fundraising revenue for this fiscal year? How will the current environment affect our campaign projections? How are you engaging supporters when you can’t meet in person? What changes are you making to fundraising goals for the next fiscal year?  

Campbell & Company developed a new software product, Beam Insights, that helps leaders make fundraising plans for a strong future.

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For the past few months, it’s been tougher to get ahold of Goodwill organizations, Salvation Army branches, and other nonprofits with resale shops. While it’s not uncommon for one organization to go radio silent during a busy period, seeing so many organizations in such a specific area all go quiet at once was a surprise.

As it turns out, they’ve all had their hands full because of one person: Marie Kondo.

Marie Kondo’s Netflix show Tidying Up launched in January and inspired a tidal wave of decluttering, leaving resale shops filled with things that don’t spark joy. Given that Tidying Up speaks to so many people, we wondered if its lessons could be applied to another place notorious for clutter—nonprofit organizations’ donor databases.

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You’re midway through a major fundraising campaign, and it’s time to take stock. Are you still on track to reach your goals? What course corrections do you need to make to your campaign plan? And what does a path to success really look like at this stage? 

Chances are, you started out with a solid plan at the beginning of the campaign. You invested time and resources to gauge stakeholder interest and develop a document to guide you through the unknown ahead. But halfway through, circumstances may have changed, and staff are often looking at the all-important campaign plan less and less. It’s time to refresh your strategy so it remains relevant.  

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Sometimes the best way to answer a question is to look at it from another perspective. Our Campbell Chats bring together our diverse team to talk about the toughest questions facing nonprofits today. By looking at these questions from several points of view, we share our expertise with each other—and with the nonprofit world!

Duncan Reilly, Marketing and Business Development Associate: Welcome! Today we’re focusing on one broader topic: Arts organizations’ membership programs and how they integrate with major giving programs.

First question: what keeps membership and major gifts teams from working together? Are they just talking past each other or is something else going on?

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The Chronicle of Philanthropy recently published an article by our team, focusing on how nonprofits are embracing change and experimenting with technology—from donor analytics to social media and more.

“Technology will increasingly play an important role in philanthropy, explains Peter Fissinger, President & CEO of Campbell & Company. “By viewing it as an opportunity rather than a threat to the status quo, organizations can realize their full potential to advance their fundraising programs and their missions.”

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