AFP

The goal of any fundraising event is to raise money for a worthy cause. However, according to the recently released 2014 Special Events Report from the Association of Fundraising Professionals, raising awareness and education is also an important goal of fundraising events.

Take heart. The world needs us to be active, connecting with people while we cheerfully, aggressively promote our causes.

Recent tweets on fundraising (#fundraising).

You may be fortunate enough to have an experienced grant writer on staff, especially if your organization has a developed and long-standing grants program. But for many nonprofits that is not so, and it might make sense to hire a grant professional or consultant, at least for a limited time.

We went to just such a consultant, Jake Seliger of Seliger Associates. We asked him what he thinks the pros and cons are of hiring a grant writer on a contractual basis.

Nonprofit and fundraising staff can help or hinder board development in your organization, and staff support for board members is embodied in 10 points.

A bipartisan group of House members has “substantial concerns” about new Obama administration regulations for the Combined Federal Campaign, the charitable giving vehicle for the federal workforce. While praising certain elements of the new rules for increasing transparency and accountability, the members said any changes should “not negatively impact the program’s ability to serve those in need in our communities.”

I have been thinking about a career in fundraising and the choices that we make that define who we are and our work. Here are some choices that we, as fundraising professionals, should be making.

The Association of Fundraising Professionals has awarded the AFP/Skystone Partners Prize for Research to Dr. Noah Drezner, assistant professor of higher education at the University of Maryland, College Park, for his outstanding work on identity-based donors, "Expanding the Donor Base in Higher Education: Engaging Non-Traditional Donors," published by Routledge.

Drezner’s book, deemed “excellent” by the AFP Research Council that awards the prize, adds new data and ideas to the relatively scarce literature on identity-based donors and how culture influences philanthropy.

As Adrian Sargeant shares, “Improving donor retention by just 10 percent can double the lifetime value of your donor database.” Plan for increases in retention by using methods like the ones here.

Mind the gap. That’s the advice in a new report on midlevel donor programs. The folks at Sea Change Strategies caution that nonprofits are missing out on a ton of money simply because they’re overlooking a committed and productive audience: middle donors — the donors who give more than low-dollar direct-marketing donations, but less than major-gift targets.