You or an acquaintance is likely involved in school fundraising.

I receive many inquiries about fundraising for a Catholic school.

Sometimes the questions come from a network of homeschooling parents who want to launch an actual “bricks and mortar” school.

Sometimes the leadership team of a longstanding school with hundreds of students has questions about expanding their enrollment.

Whatever the case may be, there are certain fundamentals that you never want to forget. Here is what I think they are:

We all want to find that one donor who can write a MASSIVE check.

Well, how do you get the big BIG check?

How do you find the MAJOR donor?

I’ve had my share of success stories in the arena of a major gift fundraising, and if I could offer you some advice, it would be this:

Using old-fashioned fundraising tactics to expand your apostolate might seem like a solid plan.

But tread carefully.

You might get stuck in the past and not reach your goal; however, you also don’t want to use progressive and untested tactics.

So, what is the future of fundraising?

I do not believe in crystal balls, but if I had to guess, I have a hunch it looks like this. Check out my future fundraising forecast:

There are countless opinions about reaching new people and finding new donors.

And there are a lot of fundraisers telling you their way works best.

But there is also a time-tested approach that rises about the rest.

It’s the approach that makes the most sense in today’s world of computers, smartphones, and tablets. While you may be hesitant to take your apostolate online, it is worth pursuing because of how easy and cost-effective it is to find new people and donors.

Let me explain why:

I ran my first fundraising campaign 10 years ago.

But it wasn’t until a few years later that I discovered something that made my fundraising explode.

I know “explode” might sound over-the-top, but looking back, that is how it felt.

Suddenly, I went from making slow and steady progress with my campaigns to experiencing giant leaps forward. I saw a significant increase in donors and donations.

You could say that I discovered a few secrets about fundraising. Yes, there are some things that many people – including you – do not know about fundraising.

Today is your lucky day! I am going to share these fundraising secrets. Here you go:

December is here.

You know what that means. The End-of-Year Fundraising “mad dash” starts..

You can raise a significant amount of donations in December. Some Catholic apostolates raise 30% to 50% of all their yearly gifts in this one month.

To help you make the most of December, check this out:

We are a few weeks away from Giving Tuesday (the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving).

Giving Tuesday is a day when non-profits encourage people to donate to their favorite causes.

Why is this day so important for you and your apostolate? It is one of those rare days people expect you to ask for donations. Therefore, you must seize this opportunity!

Today, I want to share with you how to make the most of this day.

I have seen small apostolates raise more than $20,000 with the right Giving Tuesday campaign. You can, too, with the right approach! Check out my recommendations: