125 Best Fundraising Practices and Great Ideas from the Hartsook Companies, Inc.

125 Best Practices
and Great Ideas

Gathered by Hartsook Companies, Inc.
At the Association of Fundraising Professionals'
39th International Conference
April 14-17, 2002 in St. Louis

Ensure every board meeting starts with five minutes of pure mission and vision, not just business.
-Mary Murawski, Presbyterian Children's Services (St. Louis, MO)
We started an e-mail newsletter in December using a template designed by our Webmaster. Once a month, he puts in graphics and pictures and sends it out. He figured out how to overcome the difficulty in sending such newsletters caused by some of the larger ISP platforms, and it is working well. It's been a tremendously well-received outreach by individuals and is working well.
-Fristi Ericon CFRE, Nevada Women's Fund, (Reno, NV)
I always offer a free meeting (sometimes it lasts three hours) to a potential client. It is amazing how much information they acquire in these sessions!
-Betsy Borre, Consultant (Grand Rapids, MI)
We have turned away from paid premiums and instead thank donors with "Salon Evenings." We bring in a writer or artist to their home for an intimate evening of 25-50 people (donors plus their select guests). The result is, we spend much less on the thank-you gifts than before…and it has paid off with larger donations to our organization. We do this about five times a year as a special event for those in our "inner circle" of donors. It's much more fun than packing up mugs!
-Keri Healey, Washington Commission for the Humanities (Seattle, WA)
We invite donors to cultural lunches where food is provided by our extremely diverse population of students.
-Jessica Smith, Project Regina (Minneapolis, MN)
We regularly schedule lunch with board members throughout the year. We do this as individuals, not groups.
-Wayne Groner, Labette Community College Foundation (Parsons, KS)
Keep in continual contact with campaign committee. In every single letter from our campaign chair mentions the donor by name. Personalize and complement. Thirty-seven committee members were very involved in a year and a half. We raised more money because we show we genuinely care. What they've done leads to friendly competition to improve each other. Also received in-kind media donations from leading newspapers and PR firms.
-Georgeanne Bassett, University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, NC)
As the first fundraiser for an organization with a reluctant board, I pledge a percentage of my salary to the annual fund at my introductory board meeting, while at the same time asking for board support and cooperation.
-Greg Tjapkes, Hina Makua (Kanohe, HI)
We put our 1,000 largest donors on a special contact list and schedule. We invite them to special events. The average gift increased 25 percent; we've raised additional moneys from this group.
-Greg Lee, Salvation Army (St. Paul, MN)
We are community driven. Everything from grants to solicitations begins with local stakeholder ideas.
-Mary Harding, Nebraska Environmental Trust (Lincoln, NE)
One of our board members was getting sued by a former employee. When I called to remind him of his overdue donation (annual gift) he told me about his circumstances. I did not mention the gift…but instead, rallied the troops, got him attorneys and consultants and helped him with his legal problems. Again, I never mentioned the gift. Once his problems were resolved, he doubled the annual gift.
-Tim Hall, Health Talents International, Inc. (Huntsville, AL)
Always have a camera at events so you can take photos of major donors (or potential donors). Send the picture to them…with a thank-you…within 24 hours.
-Amada Place, CFRE, UA Presents (Tucson, AZ)
Think like a businessperson when running your organization.
-Mary Imig, Nebraska Children and Families Foundation (Lincoln, NE)
Keep a beginner's mind. Never assume there is nothing anybody can teach you.
-Nicole Turner, Summit-R&D Group (Lenexa, KS)
Donor recognition: Acknowledge every gift regardless of the amount.
-Florence Cole, My Sisters' Place (Hartford, CT)
Facilitate pledge payments by using coupon books and pre-addressed mailing labels. It saves time, postage and paper.
-Rev. Carl Pieber, Diocese of Galveston-Houston (Houston, TX)
Outline discussions, save document copies, archive and keep information.
-Chris Walker, Inner Form (Lancaster, PA)
We develop an inexpensive brochure/pamphlet as an annual report to share our story. It includes testimonials and financial data. It's a nice document that board members can use to share a passionate, compelling story. It's another way for us to show how the money is spent wisely.
-Barbara Pauly, Arkansas Prostate Cancer Foundation (Little Rock, AR)
Silent auctions should consist of no more than 100 to 125 packaged items. They should be organized according to categories with fun descriptive category names. The packages should have values no less than $100 and opening bids should be no more than 30 percent of the retail value.
-Laverne Pitts, Corvallis Public Schools Foundation (Corvallis, OR)
We respond with a hand-written note to any comments donors make with their gift or response to solicitation. Example: A new $15 donor wrote a note to a response piece that said, "It's not much but it helps. I'm 90 and living in a (nursing) home." I wrote him back a nice note thanking him…and now I'm going to visit him to talk about a bequest.
-Patti Holmes, CFRE, FamilyLinks (Pittsburgh, PA)
Women who are receiving medical assistance have done a video to show how important funding has been to them. This video was used as a promotional tool to ask for other donors to help support maternal and child health.
-Susan Heilman, Wisconsin Child Care Improvement Project, Inc. (Stoughton, WI)
At a former place I worked, we provided Luggage tags with the foundation name to conference attendees so they could keep track of their tote bags…and to have our name on something they'd use long after our conference.
-Lynn Raney, Children's Hope International (St. Louis, MO)
We have received more than 4,000 automobiles as donations. I call every donor personally to say thank-you.
-Lee Schaefer, Volunteers of America (Cincinnati, OH)
We use the web to look up addresses of Senior Retirement Communities. We then run our donor database by address and find donors who live in those buildings. We then talk to those donors about coming to the building and doing an introduction to Girl Scouts.
-Patricia Broughton, Girl Scouts of America (Chicago, IL)
We produce an annual, four-color Thanksgiving mailing. Each year it varies. Sometimes it's an emotional piece from the perspective of a loved one whose family member was helped by our organization; other times it's a serious piece with a message on our organizations. Board members write personal notes to individuals they know; everyone receives a giving envelope and personal letter along with the mailing. A 4,000-piece mailing nets around $30,000.
-Carma McKay, Rosehedge AIDS Housing (Seattle, WA)
We are inviting our 50 top major-gift prospects to a teleconference call with our program director on human rights to hear about his recent visit to Bangkok Conference on rights for "sweatshop" workers. This is the first of a series of planned conference calls.
-Catherine Onyemelukwe (New York, NY)

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To read Hartsook Companies' Best Practices monograph from the Association of Fundraising Professionals' 39th International Conference, visit ASR Publishing.

To contribute your own best practice, please e-mail tami@hartsookcompanies.com.