Fundraising Voices From Ruffalo Noel Levitz

Your high end donor prospects invest in experiences. This is true both in how they give to charities and how they spend their leisure time. Adam Capes knows this and he's pioneered a new way to engage high end donors with luxury experiences that also make a difference. Check out Getaway2Give here. In the 21st century your top donors are much more willing to invest in experiences than stuff. What Adam's figured out is that having a memorable experience as part of a donation is really crucial to engaging a longterm interest of your donors. This donor experience is crucial to everything that we do here at Ruffalo Noel Levitz. If you're ready to take your donor experience to the next level, get in touch with us. We're ready to help.

Making sure that your major and planned giving fundraisers are productive is a key part of raising transformational gifts for your organization. In the second year of our major and planned giving productivity survey, we explore these issues, find out what major and gift officers think about predictive analytics, wealth ratings, and how they're able to qualify donors at scale. I got on the line with Josh Robertson to talk about the results of our second survey on major and planned giving productivity. You can download the full report here. So, if you're trying to have success in your major and planned giving program, who you're talking to is only part of the issue. The systems you use to help your gift officers really connect, to listen, and to engage donors are crucial in reaching your aspirational fundraising goals. If you'd like to take your major and planned giving program to the next level, drop us a line here at RNL. We're ready to help.

Looking into your database of supporters and searching for those people who are ready and able to make a major or planned gift is crucial to any organization's success. But how do you find the right people and ask them in the right way at the right time? Well, Greg Warner at MarketSmart has some ideas. In fact, he's built a name for himself by directly challenging our assumptions and the generally dated tactics we use to engage donors. I got him on the line to talk a little bit about how we can find new ways to engage major and planned giving donors. Check out MarketSmart at imarketsmart.com Making sure that you're approaching the best, most ready and most able prospects for major and planned giving is absolutely crucial to meeting your fundraising goals. If you're doing the same old thing, your gift officers probably aren't having a high level of success. It might be time to look at things differently. We agree with Greg that it's time to look at things differently. If you'd like to take your major and plann

Annual giving is the lifeblood of most fundraising programs, and we’re interested in keeping a pulse on current trends and fundraiser challenges. We’ve published the second version of our Advancement Leaders Speak series, where over 250 annual giving leaders told us about where they’re focusing their energy to connect with donors. Included this year is a special focus on both parents and leadership givers, two important groups. I got on the line with annual giving career veteran Shad Hanselman to go through the survey results and hear from him about the future of annual giving. You can download the full report here. Engaging parents and leadership donors will also be a top priority for most institutions in the coming years. These two groups, which might actually be the same people in many cases, require a different approach from your overall alumni and supporter base. Again, personalization, and engaging donors with a live feedback look will be key.

Every year, the Nonprofit Research Collaborative puts out two big surveys to track trends in giving. Organized around 15 different fundraising methods, it’s one of the most comprehensive surveys around. The Winter 2018  Nonprofit Fundraising study report is just out, and shows that most charities are doing better through the end of the calendar year. I got on the line with Melissa Brown from the Non Profit Research Collaborative and Aggie Sweeney from Giving USA to go over the results and talk about what they think is next for nonprofit fundraising.   Download the latest report here The Nonprofit Research Collaborative and Giving USA are great resources to track trends in fundraising. Melissa and Aggie had great insights about how wealth demographics and donor engagement are changing our work. Head on over to npresearch.org to download the most recent research. And stay tuned in June for the always important Giving USA annual report. Tracking trends is a key part of fundraising strategy. And we’re doing this

Student philanthropy programs are an important part of the advancement efforts. We know from research that almost 90 percent of colleges and universities do some type of student philanthropy program, whether it’s a philanthropy day, a student phonathon, a student organization, or even involving students in thanking donors. The Engaging Students in Philanthropy Symposium, offered by CASE as part of the Student Advancement conference coming up in just a few months, is a great place to find out about the best practices in starting and improving a student philanthropy program. I’m proud to be on the faculty once again this year. I got the great group of symposium faculty on the line to talk about what we’ll be covering this year, and what’s hot in student philanthropy work right now. Register for the Symposium here! Engaging your student body in philanthropy is a key best practice to grow future givers and provide a great experience for all your donors. Join us at the symposium to find out about how to start or

Over three quarters of higher education institutions use the phone in some way to reach out to donors each year. At the biggest programs, this amounts to a student caller phonathon, which contacts thousands of alumni, parents and friends. These phonathons or telefunds can generate millions in support, not to mention great conversations which build the relationship with a donor. We’ve just released the RNL Phonathon index, looking at 93 phonathon programs from 2014 to 2017, with over $300M in pledges. We uncover some of the key trends and best practices in phonathon programs and make suggestions about how to take your phonathon to the next level. You can download the full index at RuffaloNL.com today. I got on the line with podcast pal Josh Robertson, a fellow phonathon veteran, to break down the results and talk about what’s next for this key donor contact channel.   Chances are, if you’re doing the same thing you’ve been doing with your phonathon for years, you’re probably not getting what you could out of

Strong use of data is the cornerstone of any great fundraising program. The best programs take this to the next level, moving from descriptive to predictive – actually guiding gift officers and annual giving appeals to the donors who seem the most ready. Making this transition can be daunting. So today, we’ll talk with one of the authors of a new book, Data Science for Fundraising, building data-driven solutions using R. Ashutosh Nandeshwar is a fundraising data veteran, and a thought leader in this important emerging field. The book is part introduction to new data techniques and an in depth hands on manual to get started. Whether you’re the geek who will be manipulating the data or just interested in how this new way of thinking can transform your fundraising, he’s a great source of insight. You can find the book here: www.nandeshwar.info/ds4fundraising Ashutosh's website: www.nandeshwar.info   In our recent surveys of over 3,000 fundraisers, fully three quarters told us that they don’t feel like they are

How do we get more people interested in fundraising as a profession? It’s a key question we’re trying to answer, as we struggle to fill positions, engage donors, and take advantage of the tremendous interpersonal talents of a rising millennial generation. I came across a book that is quite different than anything we’re used to reading about fundraisers. What happens when you go from rocker to fundraiser, and go all in on philanthropy? Mitch linker, author of No One Dreams of Being a Fundraiser: My Unexpected Journey from Music to Major Gifts can tell us. I got Mitch on the line to talk about his book, his journey, and how we can get more unlikely candidates interested in our profession. You can find the book on Amazon.   Getting over the fear of asking by just doing it, finding coaches, and staying with an organization long enough to learn about the donors are all great steps on your path to becoming a better fundraiser. Mitch’s passion and insights for our profession are incredible, even if he came to the jo

We have the winners of the 2018 March (Alumni Giving) Madness tournament! This tournament is our fun way to determine the top alumni giving institutions for higher education fundraising. We took the institutions in this year's men's and women's NCAA Basketball Tournaments, analyzed their alumni giving statistics, and determined the two top institutions for alumni giving. In this podcast, we break down the results, methodology and talk about how to amplify alumni giving for your institution. 2018 March (Alumni Giving) Madness final brackets View the final 2018 March (Alumni Giving) Madness bracket You can read about the methodology we used and about the first two rounds of results in our first blog. And the winners are... Men’s Bracket: University of Pennsylvania. Returning after last year's win in our women's bracket, Penn continues to have one of the highest alumni participation stats in the tournament.  As we mentioned last year, donor growth and consistency in young alumni giving have been real strengths

There is no denying that higher education campaigns have been transformative. These comprehensive efforts help us build buildings, fund scholarships and even boost current use support. And they are growing. It’s more and more common for us to see campaign totals exceeding 1 billion. Almost every institution is either in or thinking about a campaign. So we wanted to know what fundraisers feel about the future of campaigns in higher education. We surveyed almost 600 fundraisers and got their opinions about what is working and they key challenges to campaign success. I got on the line with RNL expert Caryn Stein to break down the results of this latest edition in our Advancement Leaders Speak series. Download the full report here We know from the survey that you are either in a campaign or working on starting one soon. A few things we learned from this survey: fundraisers do expect campaigns to increase their advancement budgets. But they are under big pressure for big totals, and unless we can think a bit diff

We’ve just released our seventh chapter in the RNL Advancement Leaders Speak series, where we ask you, the fundraisers about your challenges, successes and best practices. This release is focuses on annual giving multichannel strategy – or how we contact annual giving donors through all the various fundraising channels. The report revealed some interesting things about how annual giving is judged and evaluated by institutions, how fundraisers are timing appeals, and what we feel are the best ways to capture, retain and upgrade donors. You can download the full survey at ruffalonl.com. I got on the like with Shad Hanselman, RNL’s annual giving guru, to talk about the survey and what it means for fundraising strategy. Download the full study at RuffaloNL.com Looking at the results of this survey of 300 fundraisers, it does look like there are some opportunities to optimize our multi-channel outreach to donors. As Shad mentioned, making your appeals work together like a symphony will really help engage donors

Giving Days – Campaigns that focus a groundswell of donations to a specific day, have really made a splash in the fundraising world. Using online portals that track donations as they come in, as well as offering challenges, match donations and real excitement for donors, giving days have been a game changer. We’ve just published a new study on how giving days can transform your fundraising. The RNL Giving Day Index looks at over $32 million in giving to answer key questions about average donations, campaign totals and donor counts, as well as the impact of volunteer ambassadors. You can download the full study at RuffaloNL.com right now to see how your giving day stacks up. I got on the line with my podcast pal Josh Robertson to unpack the results and talk about what they mean for your giving day success. As Josh explains, giving days are one of the best opportunities to get donors excited and to build a sense of urgency around giving. Outside of calendar or fiscal year end, they’re really the only other opt

Digital Engagement – it’s important for any fundraiser, especially those of us who want to engage younger donors. Whether it’s targeted digital advertising, social media, or great new methods like crowdfunding and online giving days, we have a great menu of options. But we hear from fundraisers that they haven’t always been able to really optimize their digital outreach. So we wanted to know more... We are about to release part four of our series Advancement Leaders Speak, and this edition is the results of a survey and conversations with advancement professionals about how they are doing digital outreach, and how they feel they connecting to young alumni and young donors. I got on the line with Caryn Stein, one of our top digital experts, to go through the results. You can download the full report here. It’s great to hear that ¾ of fundraisers feel that digital communications are effective. But with only one fifth of fundraisers using these communications as part of a defined young alumni campaign, it’s not

Crowdfunding has become very popular over the past few years. Following success in the commercial world, funding new products, artistic endeavors and other projects, we’ve seen hundreds of charities create crowdfunding campaigns and full portals with multiple campaigns to attract donors to specific needs. Higher education, with a wealth of student, faculty and athletics opportunities, has really benefited from this optimized, online and socially integrated technology. We’ve just released a comprehensive index of results from over 4,000 campaigns Ruffalo Noel Levitz charitable crowdfunding powered by the Scalefunder platform. And the results show that crowdfunding has really made a difference with our partners—over 22 million dollars actually. You can download the 2017 RNL crowdfunding index at RuffaloNL.com/crowdfundingsuccess. Today on the podcast, I talk with Josh Robertson about what we discovered as we looked a these great campaigns. If you are looking to attract new donors, particularly younger donors,

We’ve just released part two of our major research series Advancement Leaders Speak here at Ruffalo Noel Levitz. This time, we surveyed and spoke with 270 major and planned giving officers to find out how they do their jobs and how they feel about productivity. You can download the study at RuffaloNL.com—we included questions about average prospect pool sizes, number of visits with donors, key frustrations and challenges for gift officers, as well as what they think would make their jobs easier. I got on the line with Caryn Stein, Vice President here at RNL, to go through the results and talk a bit about what we are hearing from gift officers about their important work with donors.   Download the Report here Productivity—it’s not always the first topic that major and planned giving programs jump on. For a profession primarily focused on personal relationships with donors, we’re not really drawn to metrics and deep data on our solicitation effectiveness. But given the increase pressure all charitable organiza

Student philanthropy continues to be a hot topic in higher education. Just about every institution hosts some form of student philanthropic engagement. The goal is to engage students in causes that they are passionate about, help students thank current donors, and if we do it right, help students understand the importance of giving back as future alumni. Josh Harraman and Felicity Meu are experts with years of experience with successful student philanthropy programs. I’m proud to serve as faculty with them in the upcoming Engaging Students in Philanthropy Symposium, put together by CASE this coming August. I got Josh and Felicity on the line to talk about the state of student philanthropy, what we’re talking about this year, and what the future holds for this crucial higher education effort. Josh and Felicity offer great insights on how to engage students in philanthropy. We’re talking about a lifetime relationship with your alma mater here, and increasingly, institutions are working to start that deep philan

Emotion—it’s a key part of fundraising, and definitely impacts the response we receive from donors. We don’t talk about emotion in fundraising enough, really. We’re usually more concerned with what segment we’re calling or mailing or what we need to tell donors. We don’t often think about how donors feel when we reach out to them. Francesco Ambrogetti has a long career as an international fundraiser, and his groundbreaking book Emotionraising: How to astonish, disturb, seduce and convince the brain to support good causes, really gets at this issue. He’s combined the best concepts in emotive response, including research in neuroscience and psychology, to provide some great examples and tips for fundraisers. I got Francesco on the line to lay out a few of the concepts and tell us what he thinks them mean for the future of fundraising. Emotionraising, and the concepts introduced by Francesco Ambrogetti in this provocative and insightful book, could just be what your fundraising campaign needs. The science of e

What’s keeping advancement leaders up at night?   Find out what 40 higher education advancement leaders told us.   Ruffalo Noel Levitz recently commissioned a major research project to better understand advancement leaders’ priorities, challenges and strategies for the future. Through in-depth interviews with leaders across the country, we uncovered what chief advancement officers are really thinking about the future.   The results of 40 hour-long interviews with Chief Advancement Officers are discussed in this podcast. Jim Rogers, RNL CMO, talks about the budgeting priorities of today's higher education leaders, what leaders are judged on, and where they are shifting resources.   We also talk about what this means for your fundraising strategy and what's next for the higher education fundraising industry. You can download the full study here.    

Getting great content in front of your donors, things that are interesting and invoke a passion for giving, is a sure fire way to build your base of support. Robert McGuire of McGuire Editorial knows this well. He’s spent years helping top non-profits and higher education institutions put together great content strategies. Increasingly, we’re hearing that the communications you provide that are outside of the ask are crucial to engaging and retaining donors. I got Robert on the line to explain what content marketing means for fundraisers, and have him provide some tips on how to accelerate your content. Marketing, communications, multichannel, omnichannel, whatever you decide to call it—it’s for sure that you’ll want be providing great content to your donors if you want to keep them engaged. In a digital world, where you can track and respond to what donors are viewing, clicking on and clicking through, you can even tailor content to specific donor interests. You’ve heard us call it a personal journey here at