Do You Need Both Revenue AND Aspirational Goals in Major Gifts?

Do You Need Both Revenue AND Aspirational Goals in Major Gifts?

One of my favorite strategies that we’ve implemented into our major gifts coaching is the idea of an aspirational goal. But before I get to that, let me back up and talk a bit more about how we think about and approach goal setting overall. In our major gifts system,...
How Should You Spend Your Fundraising Budget? (#5 of 6)

How Should You Spend Your Fundraising Budget? (#5 of 6)

This blog post is the fifth in a series of six titled, “The House Your Donor Lives In.” The thing about fundraising budgets is that they are often allocated to various fundraising activities based on internal politics and/or history of spending. By...
Question of the Month: Why do we recommend creating both budget AND aspirational goals?

Question of the Month: Why do we recommend creating both budget AND aspirational goals?

When we work with fundraisers on goal-setting for individual donors, we recommend that they create both a budget goal that aligns to the organization’s official budget AND an aspirational goal to help them dream big about opportunities to partner with their donors for...
The Confusion Around Marketing, Communications, and Fundraising Functions

The Confusion Around Marketing, Communications, and Fundraising Functions

It’s budget time. And the debates begin. How much budget to allocate for fundraising? How much for communications? How much for marketing? And those debates migrate to who owns each of the functions. One non-profit leader believes that it all belongs together, and...