Welcome to Tomorrow's Donor

Subscribers receive the latest issue of Tomorrow's Donor by e-mail each month with valuable information about online donor cultivation and fundraising. If you have enjoyed this
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As you may have noticed, I've taken a hiatus from publishing Tomorrow's Donor, but with the New Year, I'm back at it and will be publishing once again on a regular basis. I look forward to hearing from you and sharing the latest in online donor cultivation.

Services

Have You Made an Online Donation Lately?

Even if you personally have not, it appears that since

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How do I get started?

How do I get started? – Steps for implementing an

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How to start collecting e-mail addresses

It’s difficult to imagine an e-mail cultivation strategy if you

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Can Anyone Really Raise Money Using E-mail?

You may have wondered, "Can this really work? Will e-mail be a viable channel through which donors will not only communicate but also make a donation?"

Well, this question is the reason Tomorrow's Donor exists. My colleagues and I believe that many people who are major donors today were first cultivated through the direct mail channel. Statistics have shown that in today's tech-savvy climate responses to direct mail appeals are decreasing among those in younger generations. Forward-thinking fundraisers have already begun to consider the dramatic challenge they could face in 20 years when today's direct-mail donor acquisition numbers do not yield tomorrow's supporters. How will we reach this new generation of donors that toss-out postal mail and hang-up on telemarketers as an every day occurrence?

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Contributions
Do you have something you'd like to contribute to Tomorrow's Donor? I am currently accepting proposals for short articles (fewer than 1000 words) to be included in future issues of Tomorrow's Donor. Please contact me for more information.

Research/Resources
This section is currently being updated and will re-appear in next month's issue. Thanks for your patience. In the meantime why not check out the Archives!

How to start collecting e-mail addresses...

It's difficult to imagine an e-mail cultivation strategy if you don't have many e-mail addresses. Here are a few tips to get you started collecting them:

EVERY time you communicate with your constituents do not overlook the opportunity to ask for an e-mail address.

1. Many e-mail clients, such as MS Outlook, will allow you to automatically attach a "signature" at the bottom of every message you send. Consider having all of your staff and volunteers add a line to their signature that says, "subscribe to our monthly e-newsletter by visiting our web site at www.yourorganization.org". (This is where Tip #6 comes in handy.)

2. Instruct your staff/volunteers to ask for an e-mail address whenever they speak on the phone to a donor or member of your organization, even if that person just called with a simple question. The short script could go something like this, "May we have your e-mail address? We'd like to keep you updated on what's going on with our organization."