Timothy Churchill

In 1992, Carole Baskin received a baby bobcat as a pet by her then husband. Neither knew then that it was a bad idea. When they went to buy a second one, they ended up at what they didn’t realize at the time was a “fur farm” that raised bobcats and lynxes to slaughter for fur coats. Once she figured it out, Carole bought the farm’s entire inventory of 56 bobcat and lynx kittens in return for an understanding that the owners would stop making cats into coats. “Initially she thought they could make good pets and believed the breeders who said they

It was 10 minutes past the time I was to meet someone in the lobby of the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel during the Nonprofit Technology Conference last month. I wandered through the atrium and took a seat alongside Rick Christ, president of NPAdvisors.com, and explained to him what was going on. “Twitter her,” Rick said. “Twitter her, and ask her what’s up.” I gave him the “blinkies” look — perfected during 22 years of parenting — that says, “What you have just said to me is so ridiculously out of the question that it is nearly incomprehensible.” To his credit, he held

Late last month, FundRaising Success launched its second e-strategy guide, Giving 2.0, a twice-monthly (for now) e-letter that offers insight, tips and advice on the most cutting-edge tactics that fundraisers are (or should be) using to meet their goals.

Marlboro College is a small — there are currently 330 undergrads and approximately 35 grad students — academically rigorous liberal arts school nestled in the Green Mountains of Vermont. Its fundraising model is profoundly donor-centric — and therefore completely relevant to nonprofits trying to keep current in today’s rapidly changing philanthropic climate. We spoke with Lisa Christensen, Marlboro’s chief advancement officer, about the unique college’s equally unique development mission, as well as some of its fundraising highs and lows. FundRaising Success: Can you give me a brief history of Marlboro College? Lisa Christensen: Marlboro’s story begins at the end of

For 50 years, the Passim Folk Music and Cultural Center in Harvard Square has been a mainstay of New England’s arts community, fostering performers and audiences alike. Passim is a Cambridge, Mass.-based nonprofit devoted to the preservation and cultivation of folk music — and the spreading of the folk gospel to people and communities everywhere. Passim executes its mission through unique programming — Club Passim, the Passim School of Music, Archive Project and Culture for Kids. We spoke with Jim Ricciuti, director of development at Passim, about his organization’s fundraising highs and lows, and how he envisions its fundraising future. FundRaising Success: Can

How do you end a fundraising conference on a note that will keep people around for the final session? Not an easy task, but one the DMA Nonprofit Federation seems to have accomplished. The last session of the 2008 Washington Nonprofit Conference, which took place in Washington, D.C., last week, was fairly well attended. It helped that there were prizes to be had, but the big draw was the promise of a session that wrapped up all the key points of the previous two days worth of sessions. In all, five panelists were on board for the rehash. Dana Weinstein, director of membership at