Not too long ago, I got into a conversation with an executive director who brought up the survey that was published by Guidestar and Nonprofit HR. He recently graduated with a Master's in organizational development, and he genuinely wanted to see if he could recruit and retain top talent at his nonprofit organization with his newfound knowledge and expertise...
People volunteer for many different reasons, which mean they also have different motivations for lending a hand. Regardless of the reason, if someone is willing to lend their time and talents to your organization, you should take the time to get to know them as individuals…
In my experience, the most frequent types of planned gifts an organization should market are bequests, charitable gift annuities, stocks and charitable IRA rollovers. I also suggest that you investigate life insurance, as many individuals have existing insurance policies with cash value that you can immediately use...
If you want to prove a point, nothing is better than a survey. You can, as you likely know, get any result you want by positioning the questions carefully. Today, it’s easy for anyone to put together and send out a survey using tools like SurveyMonkey...
The 2017 calendar year has been a very interesting year for me. It seems that I have contacted more prospects and made a larger number of asks than in recent memory. That said, I have also received greater numbers of refusals from an array of individuals, corporations and foundations...
I felt the potential donor’s pain. It was very clear, and their level of frustration high. A friend had long been involved with a college at a major university. Over nearly a decade, the college’s chief development officer had become a good friend to the prospective major donor and their family...
Tell me what you think is wrong with this picture: There is a major gift officer (MGO) who has a caseload, and he is also charged with doing events for the organization. He has three staff members who work with him on this agenda...
In my experience, if you hire correctly, and orient and train employees the right way, you will have a happier staff. You need to work each day at providing a positive attitude toward each employee. Lead by example and encourage others to lead. Be a servant leader and understand leading begins with good following...
Many fundraisers can point to specific successes that are a result of doing research and applying the findings to create a new program or refine an existing strategy. While surveys are still used for many research efforts, I had an opportunity to probe 21st century research for nonprofits with Dave Goetz, president of CZ Strategy, a marketing firm that helps organizations make sense of their data and then implement messaging and communication changes based on the findings...
Recently, one of our client managers for Veritus told me a story about one of our clients she is working with. When I heard this story, I was not shocked. Richard and I hear this kind of stuff all the time. This happens with major donors, because many nonprofits clearly have no structure in place for their major gift program...
