I want to talk about how callousness reduces us to mere cogs in a fundraising machine vs. the caring individuals we want and need to be. And then I want to share with you how to deal with this very common dynamic in the life of a MGO...
The term “cult of personality” tends to conjure dramatic images of political or religious leaders influencing the masses. It seems grandiose and powerful. Cult of personality has varied definitions, but they all basically boil down to this: The situation that arises when an individual person gains intense loyalty from a group of people from the sheer force of his or her personality...
We watched in horror as Charlottesville, Va., erupted into violence this past week. Otis graduated from the University of Virginia (UVA) in 1979. There, he met the Dalai Lama, he met students of diverse backgrounds, he played basketball on a diverse team and he became a Buddhist…
At the recent Bridge Conference, I enjoyed several wonderful sustainer sessions. During one of those, someone asked about the automatic sustainer upgrade process some nonprofits are apparently using. My hair immediately started standing up straight! What happened to being donor-centric?...
Your organization has no cute kids, puppies or people that you regularly serve. But you keep hearing that you’re supposed to share those “mission moments” about real people to engage your community. How does sharing powerful stories work for you?...
It’s no secret that volunteers are one of the most important components to the success of your nonprofit and its ability to achieve goals. If volunteers engage in a positive experience with your nonprofit organization, they can fill multiple opportunities of need and take part in your fundraising campaigns. The truth of the matter is that providing an outstanding experience for your volunteers starts from the first communication you have with them...
Every single sentence in your email appeals is critical to your email fundraising success. We learned this through an experiment we conducted with the George W. Bush Presidential Center. Before their grand opening, the George W. Bush Presidential Center was running an acquisition campaign to recruit founding members...
Generous givers inspire me! This past weekend, I had the privilege of attending the fraternity convention of Phi Kappa Theta. I have the honor of serving as chairman of the fraternity’s foundation and was interacting with many generous donors over the weekend...
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...
