THE POWER OF PERSONAL SOLICITATION: A New York Murder, Faked Seizures, and Six-person Juries

by Eddie Thompson | Feb 22, 2019 | Development Management, Donor Communications

I sat in a room yesterday with a group of development officers from a large and well-known international organization. This fantastic team makes an enormous impact on the lives of families in need. Since the majority of the funds they raise comes from special events,...

PENT UP GENEROSITY: Enabling the Felt-need to Give

by Cayce Powell | Jan 28, 2019 | Donor Communications

P. Cayce Powell joined Thompson & Associates in 1999 with an M.B.A. and J.D. from Texas Tech University. He now serves as President, working from the national headquarters in Nashville. I’ve met a lot of extraordinarily generous givers over the years, many of...

FUNDRAISING SIMPLICITY: The Paralysis of Self-imposed Complexity

by Eddie Thompson | Dec 13, 2018 | Development Management, Donor Communications

As I visit and have conversations with nonprofit leadership teams, I’ve noticed an increasing trend in organizational practices. We’re making fundraising excessively complicated. It’s true that fundraising can be difficult. However, a good advancement system is not...

GIVING SIGNALS: Clearly Defining Successful and Unsuccessful Donor Visits

by Eddie Thompson | Apr 3, 2018 | Donor Communications

A negative feedback loop is commonly referred to as a “vicious cycle.” One bad thing leads to another, which leads to another. The downward cycle is particularly vicious because things trend downward with increasing frequency and increasing intensity. Most have had...

LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE: Senior Development Executive’s Role in Evaluating Donor Visits

by Eddie Thompson | Feb 20, 2018 | Donor Communications

As I’ve said before, what you measure and monitor tends to improve. The inverse is equally true; what you ignore or neglect tends to deteriorate. Nonprofit leaders are very good at tracking past performance—each donor’s giving history and each fundraiser’s...

THE LISTENING HABIT: The Donor’s Story and the Organizational Story

by Eddie Thompson | Jan 2, 2018 | Donor Communications

An associate of mine showed me a list of 100 slogans or taglines used by financial institutions along side their official name. Apparently, a great many companies are attempting to brand themselves as having a deeply embedded culture of listening. “The Listening Bank”...