Faircom New York lives and breathes fundraising so it’s no surprise that we love attending Fundraising Day New York each year. The annual conference gathers fundraisers, nonprofit leaders, board members, and other interested parties to share ideas and tips about fundraising strategy for nonprofits. This year, we spoke with some amazing fundraisers and got to hear about their work, which reminded us why we love the work we do.

Barbra Schulman, Faircom New York’s Senior Account Director, was invited to sit on a panel with other industry experts to examine what works in direct marketing fundraising. This fast-paced session discussed 30 Ideas in 60 Minutes, outlining topics such as creative design techniques, effective copy, and upgrading donors.

We also had staff attending sessions throughout the day that were full of value for nonprofit fundraisers. Here were some of our key takeaways:

Working with donor-advised funds

• 270,000 people in the US have a donor-advised fund (DAF), a separately identified fund or account maintained by a 501(c)(3) organization
• 3 million dollars were put into DAFs last year alone
• Prospecting for DAFs is very similar to a traditional donor strategy or a small family foundation

Building corporate partnerships

• A successful corporate sponsorship benefits both the charitable nonprofit and its sponsor
• When searching for a corporate partner, it’s vital that your nonprofit mission closely aligns with their corporate social responsibility goals
• Senior level leadership from the nonprofit should be reaching out to corporations and holding the phone calls, etc.

Stewardship that works

• Contact donors at the right time with the right approach
  • Create a communication plan for stewardship – vary phone, email, direct mail and social media tactics
  • Communicate on a variety of topics outside of donations including upcoming events, volunteer opportunities, program information, testimonies, etc.
• Build a membership program
  • Donors will contribute money and time to become more affiliated with the nonprofit
  • Include advantages to motivate donors to join

After a long day of presenting, meeting everyone at our booth, and attending the sessions, FRDNY was an informative success. Keep an eye out for next year’s dates and agenda – hope to see you there!

For more information on our services or anything we mentioned above, please contact us at info@faircomny.com.