Reach for the Stars!

Since day one, I’ve held that those of us who are responsible for putting out FundRaising Success learn more from our readers than our readers learn from us. And this year’s Fundraising Professionals of the Year Awards have served to punctuate that belief.

Each year, we send out nominating forms that are nice and neat, with perfectly balanced categories that cover what we think are all the bases. And each year, we name winners in those respective categories.

But this year, the nominations weren’t so cut and dry, and we were reminded that there are thousands of fundraising pros out there who toil in small offices, work grueling hours and create miracles every day with very little money or staff to support them. There also are fundraising legends that inspire hundreds of fundraisers with their passion, dedication and willingness to lead by example. There are worker bees, and there are “celebs.” There are those who have a working grasp of the whole of fundraising’s best practices and others who specialize and excel in very specific areas. Some work for agencies, others for nonprofits themselves.

So this year, despite our efforts at a predetermined set of award categories, we’ve decided to let the nominations dictate those categories. Some sections of our awards story look the same, but others have morphed into something we hope is more representative of who’s doing what in the nonprofit sector.

We’ve never claimed that our awards are scientific, and this iteration just goes to show that we mean it! Here, then, is a round-up of some of the folks and organizations we believe have had a positive impact on fundraising in 2007. There are myriad more, of course, but time and space are limited. Whittling down the many nominations was a painstaking and often painful process. What we hope to accomplish, most of all, with these awards is a general recognition of the hard work and dedication that define the sector as a whole.