Accountability

I was not into cars growing up, except for one beautiful late 1950’s Dodge that had the greatest speedometer ever. That speedometer showed green, yellow or red colors as perfect indicators of the speed of the car as it went faster. I have always remembered that color indicator tool that I use for dashboards today. Besides cars, should dashboards be used in business to denote performance?...

In the dead rush to raise much-needed funds for our charitable passions, we sometimes forget that the words we choose in reaching out to our supporters need to be chosen with them in mind. There’s a unique fundraising idea...

Lest we assign blame to organizational leaders, we must understand that fundraisers are often quick to sign on with new employers who reveal all the signs of unreasonable expectations. Most fundraising professionals I know want to be admired for their abilities to turn things around and make things happen...

Today’s changing landscape is constantly evolving the nonprofit sector. And with the evolution of digital technologies comes more opportunity for fundraising—especially when it comes to event fundraising. RAISE 2017 is the first national conference for event fundraising professionals, and it’s all taking place from Sept. 25 to 26 in Washington, D.C...

We watched in horror as Charlottesville, Va., erupted into violence this past week. Otis graduated from the University of Virginia (UVA) in 1979. There, he met the Dalai Lama, he met students of diverse backgrounds, he played basketball on a diverse team and he became a Buddhist…

Nearly half of all U.S. companies experienced two or more cyberattacks, many of which focused on identity theft. Following such a breach, cybercriminals test the stolen credit card data to validate the information in a process called credit card number testing that is dramatically on the rise...

Any major gift officer who has been working for a few years has heard this phrase uttered by one of their donors, “Well, who else is going to fund this project? I don’t want to be the only one to invest in it...

At the recent Bridge Conference, I enjoyed several wonderful sustainer sessions. During one of those, someone asked about the automatic sustainer upgrade process some nonprofits are apparently using. My hair immediately started standing up straight! What happened to being donor-centric?...

Your volunteer has two relationships you need to worry about: one with the organization you represent, and one with the mission of that organization. We’ve all seen a volunteer became disenchanted with an organization, but not with the mission...

Every single sentence in your email appeals is critical to your email fundraising success. We learned this through an experiment we conducted with the George W. Bush Presidential Center. Before their grand opening, the George W. Bush Presidential Center was running an acquisition campaign to recruit founding members...