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Thoughts from the Group

Explore the DRG blog for fresh ideas on all things donor experience, leadership, team building, donor relations, and change management.

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Donor Retention

Beyond Giving Tuesday: Building Lasting Connections with First-Time Donors

Giving Tuesday can be a whirlwind of support, particularly from new donors who resonate with your cause. But after the rush, it’s...

The Donor Experience

4 Key Tips for Donor Survey Success

At the risk of sounding hyperbolic, it’s hard to imagine a more powerful tool than a custom survey of your organization’s donor base. I...

Nonprofit Leadership

Change Is Coming: How To Build Trust With Donors in Uncertain Times

The only thing constant is change . Greek philosophers have given the world much to ponder over a few thousand years, but this...

Stewardship and Reporting

From Auto-Pilot to Excellence: A Fresh Look at Donor Reporting - Part 2

Designing Your Report Process, Calendar, and Expand Reporting Welcome back! In our previous post, we discussed how to evaluate your...

Donor Communications

Crafting the Perfect Donor Welcome: How to Create an Engaging and Inspiring Email Series

A donor has chosen your organization to receive a gift—Congratulations! Now, what’s next? Beyond sending a prompt tax receipt and...

Donor Communications

Dear Google, Here's Why Your Commercial Missed the Mark

Dear Google, You got it wrong. I love the Olympics. I’ve been watching it nonstop on the Peacock app. But far too frequently, I’ve had to...

Donor Communications

5 Essential Segmentation Strategies for Nonprofits to Connect with the Perfect Audience

One of the more fascinating—and often truly baffling—aspects of the donor experience is what happens to our data after we make a gift....

Stewardship and Reporting

The Art of Impact Reporting: A Guide to Inspiring Donors

Welcome, fundraising and donor relations enthusiasts! Today, we embark on a thrilling journey into the heart of nonprofit...

The Donor Experience

How to Engage, Inspire, and Retain First Time Donors (and we have examples!)

First-time donors give for many reasons, and donor retention looks different for each donor behavior type. First-time gifts can come from...

Donor Retention

Behavior-Based Donor Relations: Fad or Phenomenon?

Have you ever gotten so deep into a subject that you can’t recall what brought you there in the first place? The concept of...

Stewardship and Reporting

5 Benefits of Using a Digital Impact Report to Engage Your Nonprofit Audience

Your impact report should be exciting, not boring. After all, this is where your nonprofit takes center stage, showing your target...

Donor Communications

5 Ways to Turn Every Communication into a Moment of Gratitude

Thank You. For the well-mannered among us, this simple expression of appreciation is as second nature as “Hello!” “How are ya?” and...

Donor Communications

Unlock the Ultimate Donor Matrix: A Step-By-Step Guide

Do you have a steady stream of new donors annually, but find yourself having a hard time retaining those donors year after year? You are...

Donor Communications

The Four Pillars of Donor Communications

I think by now y’all know I love a good four pillars—I've got the Four Pillars of Donor Relations, The Four Pillars of the Donor...

Acknowledgments

How to Craft the Ultimate Donor Thank You Email

Do you ever sit down to write a donor thank you message and poof—all the good ideas you had are gone and you're left frozen, staring at a...

Acknowledgments

8 Essential Best Practices for Donor Acknowledgments

Our Donor Relations Group (DRG) team regularly speaks and writes about the importance of acknowledgments and the importance of an...

Stewardship and Reporting

3 Keys to Improving Your Impact Reports AND Donor Retention

According to Penelope Burk’s Donor Centered Fundraising, 93% of individual donors would definitely or probably give again the next time...

Stewardship and Reporting

How to Create a Giving Day Stewardship Plan That Will Make Donors Excited to Give Again

So much goes into your organization's Giving Day, but what’s the point of obtaining hundreds or even thousands of new donors if you can’t...

Acknowledgments

Tax Receipts vs. Acknowledgments and Why They Are NOT One and the Same

Tax receipts and acknowledgments are two of the most fundamental and crucial components of your donor relations efforts, and it’s...

Donor Communications

3 Expert Tips for Writing Winning Donor Communications in 2024

Continuing with the theme of the 2020’s, I think we can all look back at 2023 and collectively say, “I did not see that coming.” ChatGPT...

Thoughts from the Group

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