Not new and want to level up?

This isn’t your first rodeo with donor organizing, and you know that being a donor organizer means a journey of lifelong learning! Here are some templates, articles, and resources to continue honing your craft.

Make the Case for Early Giving

• Why Early + Sustained Giving? (credit: Movement Voter Project)

• By Memorial Day, your political gifts lose half their value (credit: Bluem Ventures)

Build a Fundraising Plan

• Fundraising Plan Template

Donor Privacy

• Allow Users to Not Share their Emails on ActBlue

• Steps to Shut Down Un-Permissioned Emails (credit: Ethical Email)

Donor Best Practices

• Best and Worst Donor Practices (credit: Resource Generation)

Tech Tools

• Streak: Free GMail integration for mail merge; allows up to 50 sends per day free

Donor Prospecting and Cultivation

• Recruit New Donors

• Free Donor Research Tools

• Prospect Identification: You Already Know All the People You Need to Know to Raise All the Money You Want to Raise (credit: Kim Klein, Grassroots Fundraising Journal)

• Using Surveys to Strengthen Donor Relationships (credit: Stephanie Roth, Grassroots Fundraising Journal)

Donor Stewardship, Anchoring and Upgrade Asks

• Build a Donor Engagement Ladder

• Primer on Donor Meetings (credit: Kim Klein, Grassroots Fundraising Journal)

• Back to Basics: How to Build Relationships that Last (credit: Kim Klein, Grassroots Fundraising Journal)

• Nurturing Relationships Today and for Years to Come (credit: Kevin Johnson, Grassroots Fundraising Journal)

• Building Authenticity in Major Donor Relationships (credit: Tanya Mote, Grassroots Fundraising Journal)

• The Spirituality of Fundraising (credit: Henri Nouwen)

Donor Segmentation

• How to Make a Donor Pyramid

• Reframe the donor pyramid. Don’t rebuild it. (credit: Sea Change Strategies)

Recurring/Sustaining Donors Program

• Building People-Powered Organizations through Sustainership (credit: Kristin Campbell and Allison Budschalow, Grassroots Fundraising Journal)

• Sustainer Best Practices: Top 11 Tips (credit: Resource Organizing Project)

• Sustainer Program Planning Template (credit: Resource Organizing Project)

Donor-Advised Funds (DAFs) and Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs)

• DAF and IRA Giving Primer

• Donor-Advised Funds: A Tool for Redistribution or a Vehicle for Wealth Hoarding? (credit: Resource Generation)

• #HalfMyDAF Instructions for Donors (credit: #HalfMyDAF)

Donor Surveys

• 2022 Political Donor Survey Debrief by Donor Organizer Hub and Blue Tent

Treasure Troves of Resources

• Blue Tent: donor advisory site that provides recommendations grounded in research and due diligence to build an inclusive and enduring progressive majority

• Bolder Advocacy: free hotline and resource library on nonprofit advocacy and compliance

• Grassroots Fundraising Journal Archive: journal for social change fundraisers on creative ways to raise money in alignment with their mission and values

• M+R Benchmarks: benchmark data on results from emails, SMS texts, social media posts, and website visits from hundreds of nonprofits