Articles

Since 2009, Christina Soto, Saving Land magazine editor, has been collecting advice from experts on fundraising in the land trust community, including consultants, development staff and leaders of land trusts. Here is a collection of good advice during a difficult time for nonprofit fundraisers.  

Unrestricted operations money. Many consider it the most difficult money to raise each year. Land trusts that do it consistently well have a broad base of individual support, a diversity of giving opportunities and strong board member engagement.

Much has already been written about the Millennials — the generational group born between the early 1980s and the early 2000s. They were the first generation to grow up fully wired — with social media, cell phones and the Internet. They’re now the largest generation in the United States, making up roughly a third of the population.

In the quest to diversify and stabilize funding sources, there is no better opportunity for the land trust than development of a major donor program.

If you didn’t get the gift — and in some instances you won’t — there are usually 10 “horrid reasons.” There may be more, but these are the primary ones.

Your board has launched a bold initiative and your land trust is now primed to secure “take-it-to-the-next-level” grants from all comers: Just write a great proposal and shotgun mail it to all the environmental foundations in the region, right? Absolutely wrong.