Strategic Planning

A cursory search on the Internet for “volunteer handbooks” produces disappointing results. Most examples are no more than a couple of pages stapled together, highlighting dress codes, attendance policies and general volunteering expectations...

If your job is in peer-to peer fundraising, you are in the movement business. Movements require numbers—big ones. Mainstream fundraisers often look at P2P fundraising with suspicion veiled in skepticism. It looks a little bit like magic, too much like an art and certainly not a science. It looks like messy work, too, with big numbers of humans all attached to small donations...

Podcasts are a great way to hear from the nonprofit industry influencers personally and glean some of their information from their numerous years in the industry. Many of them have insightful advice into the inner workings of nonprofits and how to do better at what they do everyday. But just as you’re making the world a better place, sometimes you need to make your world a better place...

Over the past 20 years, I have had my share of jobs and have started some fundraising offices within nonprofits as part of my consulting practice. As a result, I have gotten pretty good at figuring out the first steps when setting up your development office...

There is something inherently satisfying about setting up an automated marketing system. Whether it’s retargeting, welcome series, scheduled social updates, automated ad buys, there is a temptation to "Ron Popeil" these efforts (“Just set it, and forget it!”)...

We’ve been working with major gift officers for quite a long time. I think Richard and I, along with our associates, have seen just about every type of personality, work ethic and passion, or lack of, in the MGOs we have managed...

Every fundraising program has them: financial objectives, which are set and tracked internal to the organization. We also have fundraising goals, which we communicate to our constituents. I’ll call those “external” goals...

With the rise in popularity of fitness challenge events, attracting and retaining high-value fundraisers has become increasingly competitive and beneficial for charities. But the influx of potential event participants can also expose them to additional risks and losses. They lose vital revenue with every deferment and dropout, so education, inspiration and motivation delivered regularly throughout…

As a strategic planning practitioner, I love the process and the outcomes, but I am saddened when a well-conceived plan just sits on the shelf. From a fundraising perspective, a strategic planning process that engages key constituencies and great minds is a wonderful cultivation opportunity, and the resulting plan should give confidence to donors who might invest in making the plans a reality...

Storytelling has been "hot" for some time now and for good reason. Our human brains are wired for storytelling. We’re automatically open and receptive. So, you’d be foolish not to use this to your advantage when it comes to your nonprofit marketing and fundraising—especially if your goal is to raise money. Storytelling is not difficult once you get the knack of it...