Here's a great reminder from Scribbly Bark of one of the most basic things you must do if you want to raise funds successfully: Love your audience. That's right, the secret to success is to focus on the donor, not on your own excellence:
Many nonprofits want (and expect) people to love them. Yes, the organization does good work, yes it may be a worthy cause. Then why aren’t people falling over themselves to donate?
There are a lot of excellent nonprofits out there. Your donors are awash in choices. Unfortunately, a lot of nonprofits react to this by trying to prove how lovable they are.
It's failing strategy. The one who loves the donors the best will be the one who stands out.
There's a lot to learn from this quote by the late great tenor Luciano Pavarotti: Some singers want the audience to love them. I love the audience.
Jeff Brooks has been serving the nonprofit community for more than 30 years and blogging about it since 2005. He considers fundraising the most noble of pursuits and hopes you'll join him in that opinion. You can reach him at jeff [at] jeff-brooks [dot] com. 
