Strategic Fund Development: Building Profitable Relationships That Last, Third Edition

More Thinking Since the Previous Edition

In 1996 and 2000, I wrote the first and second editions of Strategic Fund Development: Building Profitable Relationships That Last. Then—and now—I proposed four relationships to build effective organizations and successful fund development programs. Within this premise, I defined the third relationship as the relationship with your constituents.

In the original editions, I wrote about customer-centered, but didn’t yet use the term donor-centered. I demanded a focus on prospect and donor interests and emotions, motivations and aspirations.

In the original editions, this chapter focused on communicating and cultivating. I provided lots of tips and specific steps to develop your relationships with your constituents. But then. … Well, then came Keep Your Donors. Published in 2008 and co-authored with Tom Ahern—leading expert in donor communications—the book’s subtitle pretty much tells the whole story: The Guide to Better Communications and Stronger Relationships.

Keep Your Donors actually is the expanded, comprehensive, detailed version of the third relationship. Keep Your Donors is the sequel to Strategic Fund Development. Keep Your Donors is the companion text to this chapter that you’re starting right now.

I’m not rewriting Keep Your Donors in this chapter. I’m not including all of Tom Ahern’s books in this chapter—but all of his books are important to nurturing the third relationship. So is his free e-news. For more, visit www.aherncomm.com ...