Newsletter of Cause & Effect Inc. (R)

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Cause & Effect -Spring communications clean up Sent Monday, April 30, 2012 Make your spring more appealing If you haven’t sent a spring fund appeal to recent and lapsed donors this year, do it right now! If you did send one, a follow up mailing to non-responders could double your spring donor income in the next few weeks. The reasons given for not mailing an appeal boil down to too expensive, or too busy. Too busy? Organizations that don’t send a spring mail appeal […]

Cause & Effect - March 2012 Sent Thursday, March 29, 2012 In the end, we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught. Thank you to our pals at WaterFire Providence for bringing this wonderful quote from Senegalese environmentalist Baba Dioum to our attention. Schooling from scandal - Five questions your board should ask Asking tough questions today can save deep trouble down the road […]

Collaborative fundraising can work - if you've got the time Sent Tuesday, January 31, 2012 You can't hurry love... or collaborative fundraising Collaborative fundraising takes time and trust. That’s what we heard over and again in our interviews with seven nonprofit executives in Rhode Island, Boston, Cleveland and Spokane, each of them in successful fundraising collaborations. We looked into the topic at the prompting of our friends at New Roots Providence and presented our early […]

Giving Thanks - The future of Fundraising? Sent Wednesday, November 23, 2011 How do you say thank you? Fundraising success requires loyal donors who give year after year. So why don't nonprofits do better than an overall 80 percent dropout rate among first-time donors? That's the discouraging data from Indiana University fundraising researcher Adrian Sargeant. We pin a great deal of the blame on the failure to make our donors - new or renewing - feel fully recognized and […]

Are your officers doing the right stuff? Sent Wednesday, October 19, 2011 Making better use of your board leaders Great insight comes at unexpected times. While reviewing job descriptions for board officers with the governance committee of a client, one of the bright young board members remarked: I like the idea of calling the board president the chair of the board instead. The word president gives the impression that this person runs the entire organization. At […]

Surprising science of persuasion Sent Thursday, September 8, 2011 The surprising science of persuasion We’ve been gobbling up insights from Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive, by Noah J. Goldstein, Steve J. Martin and Robert B. Cialdini. This breezy book samples the science of consumer and donor decision-making and how to influence it in 50 short chapters. The science of persuasion proves to be far from straightforward. As Goldstein, Martin and Cialdini show, our minds follow crooked paths from what we want, […]

July eNews - Tips for Fundraisers Sent Thursday, July 28, 2011 Five totally random but useful tips for new fundraisers 1. A gift pyramid is really helpful to determine the level of effort you need to raise money. It’s not just a tool for calculating the number of donors needed to make big capital campaigns successful. You can use it to plan for special events, program books and even annual giving programs. See how one works online by […]

June eNews from Cause & Effect Inc. Sent Thursday, June 30, 2011 For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. - Nelson Mandela. We don't manage to outcomes, thus greatly diminishing our collective impact. That quote is from a new eBook Leap of Reason: managing to outcomes in an era of scarcity by Mario Marino of Venture Philanthropy Partners. As many of you know, we push nonprofits to develop a laser focus on the change they are trying to […]

Peer pressure persuasion - news from Cause & Effect Sent Tuesday, May 31, 2011 New season, new ideas We're always excited by people who bring new research, new perspectives and new methods to the challenges of the public benefit sector. This month, we share some fascinating new research, a list of thought-provoking books and a few upcoming opportunities to learn and explore with us in person. It's not what you know, it's who you hang out with Nonprofits spend a lot of time and effort trying to change what other people do, from […]

Cause & Effect April 2011 Newsletter Sent Friday, April 29, 2011 When Spring finally springs here in the Northeast, it does it with gusto. The brilliant tulips and charming daffodils are our reward for taking a chance on the future as we planted their bulbs last Fall. A belief in good things to come aptly describes why we do the work we do. Wondering how your board compares? According to the Nonprofit Governance Index 2010, a survey of 1,758 CEOs and board members: The sweet spot for board size is between 15-22. Only […]