Fundraiser Education

The George Lucas Family Foundation has granted the USC School of Cinematic Arts with a second endowment of $10 million to provide financial support to African-American and Hispanic students, raising the foundation’s student diversity support effort to $20 million. The foundation was established at the school in the fall 2016 semester with an initial $10…

President Trump’s initial budget proposal would end aid for poor families to pay their heating bills, defund after-school programs at public schools and make fewer grants available to college students. Community block grants that provide disaster relief, aid neighborhoods affected by foreclosure and help rural communities access water, sewer systems and safe housing would be…

When was the last time you purchased something you didn’t really need because it jumped in front of you? Perhaps because you saw it on a sidewalk stand while walking down the street. Or at the check-out line. Or it popped up as an ad or sidebar on your computer...

In Roger Craver’s recent blog post, he challenged the nonprofit industry to “rev up the discussion” around what he calls the clichéd dictum of “mail more, raise more.” He goes so far as to suggest that most direct response fundraisers are buying into the myth that the only way to effectively increase revenue is to mail more...

We take a moment to explore the many legal questions nonprofit organizations face on a daily basis. Just as nonprofits themselves are diverse and cover many topics, so too are the legal issues they face—employment law, tax questions and queries straight out of Business Law 101...

The Clark Charitable Foundation has made an $8 million gift to the George Washington University to expand an engineering scholars program that rewards SEAS students with financial assistance, professional development and leadership and networking opportunities. The Clark Engineering Scholars Program began in 2011 with an $8 million gift from the late A. James Clark, a…

I’ve been thinking a lot about the C-level donors on your portfolio lately. Why? Well, I was reviewing a mid-level program the other day and tracking all the donors that have moved from mid-level to major-gift portfolios… It was quite impressive...

If you’re an organization that has had monthly donors for a while, you’ll know that some of your monthly donors can and will stay with you for decades! Of course that in part depends on their age when joining. Typically, I’m seeing that those donors continue to give monthly for 5 years to 7 years...

Throughout the last few years, the entire world has been buzzing about the power of story. On the surface, all this conversation makes it seem like we've collectively forgotten the millennia of storytelling sprawled out before us in museums, history books, novels and campfires...

Two decades ago, Human Rights Campaign introduced “Partners,” our new monthly giving program. But we did so much more than that—in large part, unknowingly. We didn’t just create a program. We embarked on a journey to create an organizational culture. A culture of sustained giving...