Strategic Planning

What began as a fun way for Atlas Brew Works and DC Brau Brewing Company, two Washington, D.C.-based breweries, to engage the community and raise funds for an important cause, left them with a bad taste in their mouths and a five-month headache. So, what happened? Why did this attempt to do good go so wrong? The reasons are manyfold...

Advances in technology and the emergence of social media tools make it more possible than ever for social movements and causes to quickly spread far and wide (to go "viral" in the parlance of the moment). But how do you take a cause and transform it from an idea into something with universal appeal? In…

Do you ever feel stuck in cultivation? Like you’re simply not sure it’s the right time to ask? How can you know when the donor is ready? Figuring out when it’s the right time to ask can be one of the most difficult challenges for fundraisers to overcome. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to coach…

Today we celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The man embodied many things, but perhaps among his most notable identifiers was that he was a man of remarkable vision. Vision is crucial to inspiring others to give, volunteer and participate. However, many nonprofit leaders spend countless hours writing a compelling vision statement,…

A typical nonprofit organization’s calendar is always full. Meetings, campaigns and other important dates. But which should take highest priority? Here are 14 important dates that you should consider circling on your nonprofit’s calendar. They will help you strategically plan throughout the year...

Cathy is the executive director of a small, worthy nonprofit focused on the elderly. In the midst of her planning for 2016, she reached out to me with a familiar concern. How do I persuade prospective donors to actually invest in my organization? In fundraising lingo, “How do I convert more prospects into donors?”...

We’ve been hearing about “El Niño” for months, and sandbags, K-rail and umbrellas have been in great demand. For fundraisers, there are possible El Niño “seasons” (deviations from the normal or expected patterns) year-round. We can’t predict them all, so always being ready for the unexpected has to be more than a cliché; it must be our typical operating mode...

You plan and strategize, check everything (at least) twice, and follow your schedule to the minute, but mistakes happen. There’s a typo; the mailer misses your drop date; the data is wrong; the insert is overlooked; the salutation says, “Dear [Name];” the link to the landing page is broken; or any number of other possible “oops!” moments. You can be sure that sometime in 2016, you will experience some problem in your fundraising program. So be prepared, and keep these things in mind...

One of the first things a fundraiser learns is that he or she doesn’t have all the answers. We rely on testing, experience, data and, sometimes, our guts to help us make decisions about how and when to invest our fundraising dollars. However, I’ve found that in the busyness of our work, we don’t always ask the right questions...

Diane is the executive director of a medium-sized nonprofit in the Southwest. In her projections for next year, she has inked in moderate bumps in her fundraising goals. Seems like that’s insufficient for her finance committee. The members of her committee want absolute certainty on the 2016 numbers. You read it right, absolute certainty...