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Inside this site
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 Lots of good advice and real-life examples you can learn from.
Welcome to our merry tribe of troublemakers!
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Secret to a profitable fundraising program? A great case for support
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 Want a case that donors will love? Read this highly practical how-to book. Special bonus feature: short chapters.
Table of Contents
"Why do you want my hard-earned money?" A good case richly answers that basic but profound question. "Okay," you say, "but you only need a case for a capital campaign." Wrong. Behind every successful fundraising program stands a well-argued, psychologically sound case that determines the contents of newsletters, websites, and your appeals. This is the how-to book every ambitious fundraiser should read. I've taken everything I've learned writing dozens of cases for all sorts of clients and campaigns ... and clamped it all between two covers. Buy it on Amazon or at the publisher.
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Get your donor communications right
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The science and secrets of effective donor persuasion
 Table of Contents
" Dammit, man - you've written a book I wanted to write! Excellent, excellent stuff. Seriously, I'm going to have my staff and as many of my clients as possible read it." —Jeff Brooks Click to order the book directly from the publisher. Or order from Amazon.
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Links of interest
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Categories
 Nonprofit (17)
Of use to somebody (10)
Research (9)
Most Recent
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The Agitator
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Fundraising & advocacy strategies, trends, tips...with an edge. A deep (and deeply entertaining) repository of frank advice from top practitioners.
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Campbell Rinker
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Campbell Rinker is a top source of recent research on specific types of donors: hospital donors, Catholic donors, zoo donors, etc.
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CASE
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The professional association for college, university and private school fundraisers.
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What Ahern actually does
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> WRITES notably effective donor materials for your nonprofit
> CONSULTS on your materials, to improve their performance
> TRAINS you via books, workshops -- and this very website
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Sometimes you just want a fresh mind...
Tom asks Merlin for the answer
Help, please, my 7-year-old pal...
Dear Merlin (I emailed), I am developing a metaphor. I need information about how GOOD is the glue that barnacles use to attach themselves to things? Is it the best glue in the world ... or just mediocre? If you have such information, I will be most grateful. Merlin dictated back, through Marci, his mom: Barnacle glue is good enough to hold planes that go 4 inches out of the atmosphere but not good enough to ground a rocketship going to one of the new planets...
In Toronto, the fundraising world shook...
The Sargeant Report
It's bad news. But you're tough, right?
This past December, at the 2009 Toronto AFP Congress, Dr. Adrian Sargeant spoke on his latest research. What he's discovered isn't pretty. Basically, fundraisers are doing a poor job at pleasing their donors. I wrote up some of his findings in my e-newsletter; issues 7.11 through 7.13.
A free & useful PDF flip book for 2010
Super secrets...
...of successful donor communications, all in one downloadable PDF
 I took a bunch of the most important things to remember when you're trying to write successful donor communications ... and pulled them together into one electronic "flip book."
You can download it right this second as a PDF, for quick reference. And feel free to share it with colleagues and even strangers. "Yes! I'll have my flip book, please!"
Just 3 for 2010...
(aw, shucks)
Ms. Grow names her top e-news gurus
Quoted from Pamela Grow's early January 2010 issue of her Grow Report: "By the way, one of my New Year's resolutions has been to devote less time to email, so I've been cleaning out my inbox and unsubscribing to quite a few of the 'gurus' I subscribe to. However, there are three top nonprofit gurus whose newsletters you must subscribe to ... When Tom Ahern's, Lisa Sargent's or Mal Warwick's newsletter appears in my inbox, I always stop whatever I'm doing to read. Sign up - you'll thank me."
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Ahern designated CASE "Faculty Star"
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Thanks to workshop participant ratings of 4.5 or better (on a 5.0 scale) at the 39th annual CASE/NAIS conference, CASE has designated me a Faculty Star. "It places you in the top echelon of all CASE faculty...." Feb. 24, 2009.
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Ahern now on Warwick newsletter board
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Mal Warwick has kindly reprinted a number of my columns in his professional newsletter. In June 2009, he added me to the newsletter's advisory board.
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My (yawn) blog
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Talking points. Food crossed with politics? Whatever (and I mean that). Where I go. Who(m) I meet. Jump.
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Popular-ish...
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Free Subscription
YES!! Subscribe to our FREE, practical, how-to e-news. It's like an every-so-often micro-seminar in best practices."Your advice works and has made a huge difference...." Peter C., Australia Click. To sample back issues of this all-pro e-news. Click.
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See Critiques
 Read nitpicking critiques of actual donor materials sent to me for comment. Observe best and not-so-best practices at work. Learn from others' mistakes. Profit from others' bright ideas. Downloadable PDFs.
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Sample case statements
Downloadable PDFs from successful campaigns, to help you work out your case.
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T-shirts with a wordy twist
See the whole cheeky line. For women, men, kids. U get to chewz yr fave style, color, size. Click. When there, click "view all products." ------ Fave how-to booksClick for omniscience. Latest: 4/3/09. ------ Wheildon readability research
Australian editor Colin Wheildon did his pioneering research in the 1990s. It's the only research of its kind I know. Reprinted with permission. View selected findings.------ The place in FranceWe have a 2nd office in a wine-making village, deep in the south of France. (Note to hopeless Francophiles: we do rent the place.) To take a mental vacation, click. Our village vineyards: 
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Joyaux University
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Simone P. Joyaux, ACFRE, author of Strategic Fund Development: Building Profitable Relationships That Last (2nd edition) is my far-better-known colleague and spousal unit. Visit her vast website, packed with useful information for fundraising and organizational development. Click.
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Reprinting material
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Articles from this website, my books, and the Love Thy Reader e-newsletter are often reprinted: repeatedly in Mal Warwick's newsletter; as a frequent guest on the Texas Nonprofits resource website (txnp.org); once on the SOFII (Showcase of Fundraising Innovation and Inspiration) website (sofii.org), started by the UK's Ken Burnett; in Canada Fundraiser on occasion; in South Africa, in Fundraising Forum, published as a public service by Downes Murray International; and the Network for Good Learning Center.
It's an honor and a pleasure. If you want to reprint anything on this website, please do. Of course, attribute; it's all copyrighted. Let your readers know, too, that they can sign up free for my e-newsletter by coming to this site. Drop me a line. I'd love to hear from you. |
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