Mackenzie Darbyshire

Major gifts aren’t a quick fix. Pursuing them doesn’t immediately create new cash in the door. It takes time to build relationships and to cultivate those donors. And sometimes that’s the most stressful part, isn’t it? Cultivating relationships with major gift donors at the right pace for them and your organization. Over the past year, we’ve seen major gifts take longer to close because of economic uncertainty. Major gifts went from taking 12-18 months to more like 24-36 months in a lot of...

In Integrated Direct Response, the smallest change on an envelope can make or break whether a donor’s going to open it. Like the colours used, or just the angle of the stamp, implying a human touch. And then once they open it, the smallest details can influence how much of it they read. That’s why we teach our clients to always include a P.S. in their letter. Always, always, always. Because the donor is going to read it first. And if they like what it says, they’ll go back to the top and scan...

How do you make a piece of mail feel personal when you’re sending it to thousands of people at once? It doesn’t start with a name at the top of the page. It starts with a story. Not the organization’s story. But a real story—about a real person, a real family, a real moment. Told simply. Honestly. The way you’d tell it to someone sitting across from you at the kitchen table. Then this story is the spine that holds the entire campaign together. Every version. Every line that changes. Every...