Some agents are already seeing a dampening in interest, while others claim there are bigger deterrents such as visa refusal rates and wait times. In the New Zealand government’s reasoning for the visa fee increases across almost all categories, immigration minister Erica Stanford said that New Zealand’s charges remain relatively low compared to other popular…
In an official report in July 2024, the communist party laid out plans to promote “modernisation with Chinese characteristics”, including to “explore the establishment of an immigration system for high-tech talents”. The report also vowed to “open up talent exchange channels between universities, research institutes and enterprises” and “improve the mechanism for overseas talent introduction…
A junior-level nursing student confided in me during one of my clinical rounds on the first day of the clinical rotation that she felt uneasy handling a “difficult” patient. The patient talked to himself, was aggressive, suspicious of everyone, and suffered from schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a “brain disorder that affects how people think, feel, and…
When you see this direct mail envelope that showed up in my mailbox, you might ask, “What were they thinking?” The thing is huge. 11″ x 13.75″. It had to be folded in half to fit in the mailbox. In direct mail, big envelopes do well. This one is not for a nonprofit, but something…
As the lazy days of summer start to dwindle, it’s time to trade in beach reads for textbooks and flip-flops for sensible shoes. The upcoming semester is looming like a deadline in the distance, slowly but surely creeping closer. But fear not! This year, you have a secret tool in your back-to-school arsenal: AI. Imagine…
One of the quickest ways to make sure a would be donor doesn’t give is to ask them to do something so big they can’t possibly do it: “We need $17 million to build the new wing of the museum.” For all but a very small group of donors, the answer will be, “Good luck…
Effective fundraising offers are hard to create. Our curse of knowledge and insider perspective lead us to create offers we love — but miss our non-expert donors. Here are some common ways fundraising offers go astray: Too big. As wonderful as it will be, we aren’t going to eliminate world poverty in the next 12…
What this blog is about The future of fundraising is not about social media, online video, or SEM. It’s not about any technology, medium, or technique. It’s about donors. If you need to raise funds from donors, you need to study them, respect them, and build everything you do around them. And the future? It’s already here. More….
You can have all the facts that support your fundraising offer lined up like an army on the march, but you’ll hardly motivate anyone to give until you reach their hearts. Blame biology. We human beings make virtually all our decisions with our emotions. Then we circle back with our rational minds to either justify…
Here’s what fundraising and giving looks like to us fundraisers: We think we are leading an army of “our” donors in the great work that our organizations are doing. That’s not how it looks to our donors… Here’s what giving looks like to donors: In the donor’s world, she is not part of “your” army…