It simply makes sense to follow the money. Where is it? Letโs begin with that elephant-shaped piรฑata in the middle of the room. Itโs filled with the majority of all philanthropy. Yup! Itโs right inside. Youโve got to figure out how to get the goodies out of it or youโll just be scrambling for spare change. Major gifts is where the real money is. How do you break open that piรฑata?...
This week, I was at the Association of Fundraising Professionals International Fundraising Conference in Boston. Many sessions were worth the time away, but there was one, in particular, to remember. Three people took the stage. These three helped launch, build and grow organizations such as Amnesty International, Greenpeace International, Planned Parenthood, Sierra Club, Heifer International and more...
When I embarked on my own in fundraising consulting I had only one client that I served as a sole practitioner. I soon realized that I was missing the synergy of a team. Collaboration is important. We all have different skills. So, as we developed our team, we also looked for redundancy. We didnโt want just one person with a unique set of skills. We wanted backup...
For the more than 1.5 million nonprofit organizations in the U.S., dataโbig and smallโhas never been more important in terms of its potential impact on fundraising. The opportunity to further understand, keep and grow donor relationships is huge. But for many of these organizations, thereโs a catchโas hopes have risen, so have confusion and concern about using technology to make it happen without draining budgets and sacrificing other efforts...
With the presidential election fewer than eight months away, fundraisers, once again, are faced with the uncertainty of whether political giving this year will impact contributions to their respective organizations. Itโs only natural for nonprofit executives and fundraisers to be nervous about how the 2016 presidential campaign will impact contributions to their organizations...
Stop for a moment, go to a quiet place and focus on the problem your organization is dealing with. It could be homelessness, drug addiction, abuse of people or animals, the effects of humankind on the environmentโwhatever it is, focus on it...
Providing quality services. Raising funds. Promoting public awareness. Regardless of your nonprofitโs core mission, tasks like these are never far from your ever-growing list of things to do. But thereโs one more thing you need to add to your list if you havenโt already, and thatโs obtaining federal trademark registration for your name...
In last weekโs article, I stated, โA nonprofit is not a business. But if you donโt run it like a business, you will go out of business.โ A nonprofit organization differs from commercial ventures in many ways, but some important similarities exist...
Recently, we were preparing a collection of stories to share with a campaign steering committeeโprofound stories of mission impact that moved the heart, and stressed the importance and urgency of the fundraising campaignโs end results...
You donโt have to be a baseball fan to love Yogi Berra. Originator of many popular "Yogisms," including โWhen you come to a fork in the road, take itโ and "It's dรฉjร vu all over again,โ Berra was known as much for his malapropisms as his MLB career. One of my newsletter subscribers reminded me of my favorite "Yogism" just the other day. Her organization has considered enrolling in a big-ticket, sustainable fundraising coaching program...