Skip to content
ADVERTISEMENT

How to Find and Solicit New Donors

The nonprofit world is crowded. The number of public charities in America increased 42.3 percent from 2000 to 2010, according to the Urban Institute. During that same period, the U.S. population grew just 9.7 percent.

The competition for individual donors is getting fiercer, and donors now have more choices of where to give. Many nonprofit consultants have shifted their focus more to donor retention, an activity that’s gotten more study in recent years.

But a simple truth remains: You have to have donors to retain them. And in an environment in which more than half of donors don’t give to the same charity a year later, it’s vital to bring in new blood.

So, how do you it? Any way you can—from bake sales to multi-million dollar multimedia campaigns.

“There are lots of ways to skin a cat,” says Gail Perry, author of Fired-Up Fundraising.

Below are links to The Chronicle‘s top resources for expanding your organization’s pool of donors.