Viken Mikaelian

I’ll never forget the first time my wife and I met with our lawyer to create our estate plans. When do you pull the plug if a partner is terminally ill? What happens if we both die in an accident at the same time? Who do we trust to be an executor? It was, in many ways, a grim task, and I could see why so many people put it off.

There’s something that some fundraisers don’t get that good marketers know instinctively: You’re not selling a product, gift plan, or naming rights. To paraphrase Steve Jobs, “You’re selling a dream.”   It doesn’t matter if you’re buying a Ferrari or Ford, a Rolex or a Timex, diamond earrings or cubic zirconia, a villa on a lake or a weekend at an Airbnb: You’re buying a dream of something bigger, better, shinier, or easier.  The same goes for donors. Your donors

Planned giving can present a unique challenge for marketing, because the unspoken message is that a death must occur for a gift to be fully realized. Here are two ways to alleviate the macabre undertone.

Establishing a major donor strategy is arguably one of the most effective ways to establish a significant, long-term funding source for your nonprofit. Ideally, major donors and nonprofits enjoy a long, mutually-beneficial relationship where the donor uses their resources to make big things happen at an organization they cherish. But how do you begin to build this strategy? How do you discover the giving potential of those in your community? Below are three top tools to help complete donor prospect research.

Corporations and businesses continue to adopt philanthropic strategies as consumers attempt to make more ethical purchasing choices. This makes corporate sponsorships a wonderful major gift partnership between businesses near you and your nonprofit. Whether your organization resides near some corporate headquarters in a major city or a rural area with family-owned businesses, corporate sponsorships can provide a helpful fundraising boost and open up possibilities for mutually beneficial partnerships.

Having a professional mentor sounds like an inspiring boost to anyone’s professional development. Being able to benefit from the wisdom and expertise of someone you trust sounds like a fantastic way to learn essential lessons and plan your next moves. But how do you find a mentor? What makes a healthy mentor relationship? Can a non-traditional mentorship still provide similar benefits? Read on to learn practical ways to infuse priceless expertise into your professional development.

It’s no understatement that the purpose of many nonprofits is to solve the world’s most urgent and challenging questions, often with the fewest resources. Issues like hunger, economic development, poverty, addiction, affordable housing, animal neglect, education, environmental hazards and more are often the core of our organizations’ purpose. But when your cause is so big and complex, how do you discuss it with an audience experiencing a shrinking attention span and more charitable causes to support than ever?

“But they cut my budget this year!” It’s the same story, year after year, no matter what the economy’s doing. People blame their inability to “do planned giving” on a lack of money. After 25 years in the planned giving marketing world this complaint comes in consistently. So what else has changed? I hear this in the corporate world, too.