Top tips

How do you talk to donors about fundraising costs? Our friends at The Agitator on how to talk to donors about fundraising costs and ethics.

Another terrific explanation from Seattle fundraiser Peter Drury on overhead ratios.

Joanne Fritz implores please treat me like a major donor.

Heather Mansfield with some killer fresh ideas for your nonprofit's thank you landing page. Don't miss it.

Over at Bloomerang, Simone Joyaux shares 54 essential questions about fund development. Use them to stimulate discussion and thinking amongst your team.

Do you use the phone enough in your fundraising? 101 Fundraising share ten reasons to pick up the phone and give your donors a call.

Angela Cluff from the Management Centre shares a seven-step plan to develop a fundraising strategy from scratch.

News

A top street fundraiser shares some of his secrets at Fundraiser magazine. It’s great to read James’ everyday experiences and hope we can read more from fundraisers out there meeting and talking to donors directly.

The first assignment for students in my nonprofit storytelling course was to watch Dr Paul Zak’s video on empathy, neurochemistry and the dramatic arc. If you missed it, here’s Angie Moore with what do oxytocin and cortisol have to do with fundraising?

Does your organisation have an email welcome series for new online donors and/or subscribers? What’s an email welcome series worth? From Powerthruconsulting.

Fundraising Detective hosted the July nonprofit blog carnival. The theme was welcoming donors and securing the second gift. There are some great links that will help improve your relationship fundraising.

Opinion

Do you know your organisation’s true potential? Or are you just using ‘easy excuses’?

The Agitator gives us the goods.

Pamela Grow shares a moving story about a family friend and urges you to have a plan for your in-memoriam gifts.

Our friends at Veritus remind us that you can’t thank your donors fast enough.

Are the leading voices in fundraising men? Do men comprise the majority of fundraising agencies? Margaux Smith blogging at 101Fundraising asks ‘where my girls at?*’

And look for WomenRuleFundraising.com to launch this fall, where smart women fundraisers will be sharing their strategies, successes...and maybe even doing a bit of ‘agitating’ themselves.

There are so many takeaways in this piece from our friends at The Agitator on Greenpeace’s recent video denouncing Lego for teaming up with Shell Oil (what was the thinking behind that?). When you sign up, you’ll see some of the best examples of brilliantly donor-focused web copywriting ever.

Adrian Salmon from Leeds University shares how he analyses his results and uses the insight to develop a ‘power index’ for fundraising channels.

Fundraising’s brilliant past

The centenary of the start of the First World War inspired Tony Charalambides from Listen to write two great posts on fundraising in Great War on 101 Fundraising.