Josh Birkholz

In recent months, we’ve received many questions from our great campaign fundraisers and institutional leaders about raising money in times of economic uncertainty. Certainly, anticipating the direction of the economy may be closer to predicting earthquakes than predicting shopping habits at Amazon. Nevertheless, the frequency of this question is approaching the scale of pre-recession 2008 enough to take notice. I am reminded of the carnival game of predicting gumballs in a jar. As we’ve seen in many experiments, the average of everyone’s guesses tends to be rather close to the actual count. Perhaps, the preponderance of questions about the economy should not be taken lightly.

Having gone through a very significant downturn a decade ago, we’ve seen a few trends and strategies worth considering in case the group-think proves significant. In the interest of sharing ideas and beginning a discussion, I would like to pass on some thoughts about how your nonprofit can maintain and even grow during uncertain times.

Click here to see the pdf with the 7 Strategies

Our team at BWF compiled this research on trends in digital fundraising.  Whether you are in higher education, healthcare, human services, or the arts, this study is packed with relevant information.  I hope you enjoy it.

From the introduction:

Digital fundraising is a rapidly growing area. Most organizations have already begun investing, and most are seeing early fruits of those investments. 

The Bentz Whaley Flessner Digital Fundraising Survey seeks to gain a current snapshot of the health and trajectory of the digital fundraising practice. 

As you read this report, you will likely find areas of agreement. You may also find data that provides further evidence that you are on the right track, and a deeper investment is warranted. Finally, this report may uncover opportunities for improvement. 

We hope you enjoy the report. If you have comments or feedback, please reach out to Barett Christensen, Director of Digital Service at bchristensen@bwf.com or (952)921-0111.

Click here for the free report

Check out my latest whitepaper on 21st century giving. Digital and social giving are so much more than an annual giving channel or program novelty. We are on the sea and the waves of disruption are crashing into shore.

Here it is

Project Associate, Systems and Operations team

As a Project Associate at BWF, you’ll use your expertise in in nonprofits and fundraising database management, and fundraising operations to help organizations across the country strengthen their development efforts and advance their missions. Working with the Systems Practice, you’ll partner with and learn from industry-leading consultants as they help clients to discover solutions to their operations challenges. This position reports to the Systems and Operations Practice Leader and works collaboratively with clients, consultants, and support staff.

Here is the full posting

Check out this paper written by my colleague Andy Schultz this past week.

Fundraisers throughout our industry have increasingly relied on  data-driven approaches such as predictive modeling to help identify  individuals who are most likely to support our missions. These same tools  have not been readily available for corporate and foundation fundraisers.
 
 Over the past several months, BWF Insight has continued its tradition of  innovation by developing a set of data-driven strategies to assist corporate  and foundation fundraisers with their prospecting. In this month’s Points  of Practice, Bentz Whaley Flessner Director of Analytics, Andrew Schultz,  offers methodologies on how to quantify and prioritize non-individual  constituents.

Download the Full Article Here