Dear [First Name],

The Asking Matters team is hard at work building some amazing resources to help you fundraise.

First and foremost, we're working to retool the membership again and make it even more rewarding. Thanks to all our members who responded to our last survey, which gave us tremendous feedback.

We know our members are really getting a lot out of the 16-week course, so we're going to expand it to make a longer, deeper learning experience. We're also going to include some premium webinars in the membership, and only members will get the Fundraising Masters webinars for free going forward.  Stay tuned to hear more!

Next up, I'm in the process of finalizing two electronic courses. Michael Davidson and I are getting ready to launch Rubber Stamps Don't Fundraise: An Integrated Approach to Board Governance and Fundraising. It'll launch in October. 

And CharityChannel and I are building an electronic course out of the webinar-based course I've been teaching each fall. The course will be designed for those who really want to dig in deep to learn the ins and outs of asking. If you took my Ask Your Way to Fundraising Success course, picture it super-charged!

Last, I'm determined to get back to writing my first book, which will launch off the Asking Styles to share my experiences as a Kindred Spirit.

…so stay tuned!

In this world of infinite change, we can still count on some things. Total individual giving still represents almost 88% of all charitable giving in the U.S. Last year outright gifts by individuals jumped the most of all giving categories – by almost 4% – or approximately $10 billion.

That was countered a bit by a big drop in bequests – 9%, or about $2 billion.  That figure can swing wildly based on one or two whopping bequests.

Many forget that half of all foundation gifts are from individual or small family foundations, where individuals are making decisions about their own money. Foundation gifts increased 3.5%, or about $2 billion, so that’s another $1 billion increase for individuals.

Bottom line – individuals were up $9 billion of a total increase of $12 billion. 75% of the increase! Read more about the GivingUSA numbers on the Asking Matters blog:

Isn’t this the question you ask yourself as a fundraising professional, day after day: “How do we get the money?" 

Lori Jacobwith has been studying her own language around money for many years, thanks to her favorite book The Soul of Money and its author Lynne Twist, and others committed to positive language choices.

In June, Lori helped us take an in-depth look into our relationship with money in her Fundraising Masters session: Talking About the Soul of Money. The FREE webinar recording is now available at Asking Matters!

Be sure to check it out – the topic is intended to inspire a paradigm shift for your money conversations both personally and for your nonprofit organization.

Fundraising is a service industry. We are here to engage our donors and build connections to the organization and we’re always under pressure to raise more money. This can lead us to think every donor's worth our time and effort.

But that is not the case. And we need to be clear with ourselves about the level of gift that makes the personal touch, the staff time, and the board involvement worth it. Watch my free video to figure out which donors are worth your (and your organization's!) time and effort.

Get Your Board to Give Their Biggest Gifts and Help You Fundraise

Imagine how much you could accomplish if every board member contributed his or her best gift and was enthusiastically involved in helping the organization fundraise. Well, that’s not going to happen unless you educate the board and develop a strategic plan for their involvement.

Join me to learn more on Wednesday, July 12th at 1:00pm ET, or Wednesday, July 19th at 1:00pm ET.

If you celebrate, I hope you had a great July 4th weekend.

Let's get social: