During the past three weeks, Holly Hall, a features editor at The Chronicle of Philanthropy has been studying at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota as part of her plan to obtain a master’s degree in philanthropy and development. During her stay, Ms. Hall kept a journal with useful ideas for fund raisers, as well as other observations to share with Prospecting readers. Following is the first installment; we’ll publish more over the next few days.

Day One: Getting Ready to Plunge In

It’s a hot summer day, and I’m stuck from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. in an aggressively air-conditioned classroom with group of 20 professionals, mostly, but not all, fund raisers.

I use the word “stuck” because I’m panicked, wondering what I’ve gotten myself into—even though our faculty members, keep repeating (like a mantra) that this feeling of “buyer’s remorse” is not unusual.

I chose to come...

In many cities and towns, numerous groups are focused on similar causes — and competing for the same types of donors, notes Arlene Spencer, a grant-proposal writer, on her blog Seeking Grant Money Today.

But Ms. Spencer says that charities should stop worrying about the competition and instead spell out clearly for donors why each organization exists.

“If two similar nonprofits (or more) exist in a single community,” she writes,“chances are that while they may work on the same cause (or issue), they are likely working on different aspects of the issue, or doing similar work for different populations effected by the cause, etc. The key in similar organization being near one another are their differences.”

Ms. Spencer also advises collaborating instead of competing.

“Many funders, today, (including grant donors, in particular) like to see nonprofits collaborate,” she writes. “Why...

Fund raisers do more harm for their cause than good when they ask donors to give so that a charity can meet a budget shortfall or reach a difficult fund-raising goal, says Marc A. Pitman, author of the new book, Ask Without Fear: a Simple Guide to Connecting Donors With What Matters to Them Most.

“If you have a sincere crisis, then by all means tell your donors. Bad things happen to the best causes,” he writes. But if the organization isn’t facing a crisis, messages such as “We’re not going to make our budget if you don’t help us out” can make a bad impression, especially when repeated year after year. “Crying ‘wolf!’ is a sure-fire way to get people to ignore you,” writes Mr. Pitman, a fund-raising consultant in Waterville, Me.

A more-effective way to appeal to donors, he says, is to tell a moving story that will remind them of the impact the organization has had on their and...

Instead of broadcasting a “one size fits all” fund-raising message to every potential donor, Goodwill of Greater Washington now tailors its appeals to different audiences and has increased the number of repeat donors by 60 percent over the past five years, Brendan Hurley, senior vice president for marketing and communications, told a meeting of the American Marketing Association this week.

Goodwill of Greater Washington classified its donors and other people it wanted to reach into 25 distinct groups, including donors of used goods, buyers of goods, affluent people who could make big donations or planned gifts, and leaders of corporate foundations, says Mr. Hurley.

To successfully increase donations, he says, “You have to know who you are talking to.”

Goodwill first reached out to each type of potential donor not with a request for assistance, but with an explanation for each...

Education fund raisers are predicting sluggish growth in donations this year, according to a new survey released by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education at its annual meeting in New York City.

The organization says the economic downturn is a key reason giving is expected to increase more slowly than in the past.

According to the CASE Fundraising Index, a new forecasting tool the association unveiled today, philanthropic support for colleges and private schools is expected to grow by 5.3 percent for the academic year that began July 1, down from the 7 percent average annual rate of growth for the last 20 years.

The CASE Fundraising Index is based on an electronic survey sent to senior fund raisers at the 2,300 organizations that belong to the association. The first survey was conducted in early July and its results are based on data from 239 fund raisers.

CASE...

The sluggish economy is showing its effects on charitable donations, which rose just 1 percent last year after inflation, according to Giving USA, the annual tally of American philanthropy.

Americans donated $306.4-billion in 2007, figures released today show, but fund raising is facing more challenges this year, especially as the housing and financial-services industries continue to crumble, fuel and food costs rise, and the stock market’s volatility strains individuals and organizations across the country.

Charities interviewed by The Chronicle report that donors of all types have recently delayed or reduced gifts — or stopped giving altogether

To learn more about how the economy is affecting giving, join us for a live online discussion Tuesday at noon, Eastern time.

Let us know how your charity is faring in fund raising and what solicitation techniques are working best....

When charities ask foundations to renew their grants, they can’t show only that a program was instituted as promised or that it served a certain number of people, says John A. LaRocca, vice president of the Rensselaerville Institute, a think tank for charities and foundations.

Charities need to show that participants in a particular program have grown or changed as a result of it, Mr. LaRocca said a conference for fund raisers held in New York last week. “We look for a relatively enduring change in behavior,” he said.

Mr. LaRocca and other speakers offered several additional tips as charities seek to show foundations they are producing results — and worthy of support.

Hard-working entrepreneurs in developing countries and efforts to help them served as inspiration when a hospital foundation in Grand Rapids, Mich., decided to expand its online fund raising.

Officials at the Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital and Spectrum Health Foundations say they looked to the successful example of Kiva.org when they designed their new giving site.

Kiva is a San Francisco organization, founded in October 2005, that allows people to make loans to entrepreneurs in developing countries. Loans made through the charity’s Web site now total more than $27-million.

The hospital foundation adapted Kiva’s approach of letting donors direct their giving by creating an online wish list.

Through the new Web site, donors can purchase fetal heart-rate monitors, phone and gas cards for families whose children are being treated at the hospital, equipment for the...

One in five estates left money or other assets to charity in 2004, the most recent-year for which information is available, according to a new report released by the IRS.

People who died and left larger estates were more likely to make a charitable bequest than those with smaller estates and, on average, gave away a larger portion of their gross estates to charity.

The causes donors supported also varied by the size of the estate.

Estates of $1.5-million to $3.5-million left a much smaller share of bequests — 13.6 percent — to private foundations, community funds, and other groups that promote philanthropy and volunteerism than the average estate. Estates of that size left significantly larger shares of bequests to educational and religious organizations than the average estate.

Medium-sized estates, of $3.5-million to $5-million, reported a distribution of bequests similar to...

A simple pop-up box has given the University of Pennsylvania a window into the minds of its online donors.

After donors make a gift to the university’s annual fund, a screen comes up that gives them a receipt for the donation, along with a pop-up box that asks if they would like to say why they made their contributions.

More than 650 donors have offered their comments since the Penn Fund added the box to its Web site in 2003.

Fund raisers are able to link the donors’ comments to their giving histories and look for patterns to help shape fund-raising strategy, says Jean Findlay, director of marketing and donor participation at the annual fund. They can, for example, look at the comments of donors who gave for the first time.

“That’s really important to me,” she says. “I need to figure out how to prompt more not-yet-givers into giving.”

Fund raisers have followed up on some of...