Institute for Charitable Giving

How To Energize Your Donor Communications - By Jeff Spitko, Senior Director of Integrated Fundraising, San Diego Foundation As fundraisers and direct marketers, we often dive into strategy creation during our most hectic time of the year. What seemed like incredible ideas in the 4th Quarter of 2024 may not still be the best opportunities. Now that you’ve made it through the chaos of year-end campaigns and have momentum as you’re preparing to launch your spring appeal, it’s the perfect time to pause, reflect, and double check your fundraising communication strategy. Before you get too far into 2025, here are some quick tips that I try to implement each year. Hopefully these will energize your donor communications. 1?? Illustrate Your Impact 2?? Remember What Worked, And What Didn't 3?? Expand your Segmentation 4?? Get To Know Them More Jeff Spitko will be at our Costa Mesa Seminar?to discuss the topic of Case Statements. Jeff will also be speaking on Integrated Communications, and Lead Generation: Donor acquisition strategies for building your base of supporters. We hope to see you there!

We understand how critical major gifts are to your organization’s success. This isn’t a conference where you passively listen to lectures. We build in time for small RoundTable group discussions, one-on-one coaching with our faculty (we call it “ParkBenching”), and peer networking. Our intention is to leave you with actionable strategies to help your institutions and organizations build on successes and move to greater levels of success. Register now for our spring seminar! https://lnkd.in/e7w4tiku

Are you ready to take your fundraising results to new heights in 2025? We’ve got something extraordinary in store for you! Remember the excitement of Transform23 & Transform24? The overwhelming success and the resounding requests to "do it again" have inspired our dear friend and colleague Tammy Zonker do it again! She's hosting Transform25 — a two-day Fundraising Transformation Virtual Summit on January 22 & 23, 2025, from 11 am to 6 pm ET.?And you're invited to attend for free! We're thrilled to be the Innovator Sponsor for this epic event! We want you right there with us.

?? Looking to enhance your fundraising skills and knowledge this New Year? Order your books today!

?? Spring Offering ?? Costa Mesa, CA - May 5-7, 2025 The Westin South Coast Plaza

From the archives of Jerold Panas and Philanthropy Counts?. There he was, standing in front of sixty professionals from all over the country. It happened several years ago, at one of our Seminars in Boston, I wish you could have been there. Bob is from the University of Tennessee. For some reason I can’t remember, he started talking about his father. It was obvious there was deep affection for his dad. Bob was still standing in front of the group when I asked: It’s so obvious that your dad has been an immense influence on you, Bob. What did your dad do for a living? He was an insurance salesman.?How did he do? Was he successful? Oh, he was very successful. Very. For eight of nine years, he led the southeast region in sales for his company. One year he was the national leader. Ah-hah! I believe we have one of those teachable moments. I probe. I suppose he sold all of the insurance policies by sending out a kazillion letters. Oh, no! You can’t sell insurance policies by sending out letters. Well, I suppose he sold them by calling a lot of people on the telephone. No, no! You can’t sell insurance policies by calling people on the telephone. Tell us the—how did he sell all those insurance policies? And now comes this great lesson. The marbles! Here’s what Bob said. Well, before dad ever left home in the morning, he put four marbles in his left-hand pocket. Every time he called on someone and actually asked them to buy an insurance policy, he would take one of the marbles out of his left- hand pocket and put it in the right-hand pocket. But he wouldn’t shift a marble to the right-hand pocket unless he had actually asked someone to buy a policy. No Rotary Club meetings, cocktail parties, or chatting with people in the elevator. It had to be a real sit-down session where he would talk to a person about buying a policy. Dad would never come home until he had moved all four marbles from the left-hand side to the right-hand side. And there were times. . . he came home very late! I thought—what a wonderful lesson for those of us in fundraising. We won’t get a major gift unless we actually sit down with someone and ask them to share our vision and dream. And actually ask them to make the gift. If we were in the life insurance business and our family and livelihood depended on our selling insurance policies, we would certainly be moving those four marbles every day. There wouldn’t be much time to sit behind a desk, attend staff meetings, develop a lot more research on prospects, chat with colleagues, or spend a lot of time at the computer. We would have to make the calls, and move those marbles. You will be amazed at how much you don’t get if you don’t ask for the gift!? Go ahead. Make the call. Ask! You will be successful. You can count on it.? And these four marbles will not only serve as a reminder—they will bring you good fortune. And that’s a promise. —Jerry Panas

Our Chicago Seminar, October 7-9, 2024 is SOLD OUT! However, registration for our Spring Seminar opens October 8, 2024. This Seminar will be held in Costa Mesa, CA, May 5-7, 2025. There will be an early bird registration fee offered until December 31, 2024. #fundraising #fundraisers #philanthropy #philanthropycounts

? Take Charge of Your Professional Development ? Join us in Chicago, October 7-9. Don't miss this opportunity to transform your major gifts results! Over three days, we'll dive deep into: ? Mastering moves management ? Securing visits and making compelling asks ? Understanding donor psychology ? Leveraging integrated communications ? Attracting and retaining top fundraising talent ? And so much more! This is our final Seminar for 2024! https://lnkd.in/ef9APMy7 #fundraiser #fundraising #philanthropy #philanthropycounts

Come meet the team! Join us in Chicago, October 7-9, 2024. https://lnkd.in/ef9APMy7 Tammy Zonker, Dean ICG, Founder & President of Fundraising Transformed Douglas Dillon, CFRE, Dean ICG, CEO Jerold Panas, Linzy & Partners Angela Burgess, President & CEO at Broad Oaks Consulting Beau Cummings, MBA, CFRE, CEO Paschal Murray, Executive Search Russell Dunlavy, Senior Associate Vice President, University Development, University of Houston Shannon Duval, FAHP, CFRE, Global Chief Development Officer for Ronald McDonald House Charities Ashley Nall, MS, CFRE, Senior Director, Foundation at Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital Terry Heilman Sylvester, Trustee Emerita, University of Richmond, Trustee of Campbellsville University Jeff Spitko, Director of Membership & Audience Management at San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance