One of our team-guiding principles is to approach each opportunity and project with a sense of urgency. Early in my career, I interviewed for a few positions. After each interview, I waited for the call. Well, to be honest I waited on the call the next day. After all, who would not want to hire me? It was my major focus...
Why do your donors give? It’s not because of your awesome mission or the 1,723 kids you served last year. It is, in all simplicity, because of what they are doing through you. Your donors are changing the world! But so many nonprofit organizations miss the mark...
Some things are not predictable and “Pokemon Go” falls into that category. Did your organization take advantage of any of the hype? Is your organization prepped to grab lightning in the future?...
I believe there is a crisis amongst major gift officers (MGOs) all over the world. It’s a crisis that is causing good people, like you, to struggle and lose faith in their skills, and causing donors to question the mission of organizations they either support or want to support. This crisis is about a lack of confidence MGOs exhibit in their work...
Recently, a United Way agency asked our organization to participate in a several-hour-long audit session. While the event was very structured, it also was conversational in approach. It provided a wonderful forum for our organizational members to evaluate how an outside organization perceives us, and for us to test our systems, processes and performance standards...
If you are a leader in higher education, independent schools or any nonprofit, you need to be on social media personally, especially if your role includes fundraising. Why? A key part of your role is to nurture relationships. If your board members, donors and prospective donors are engaged in social media, then you need to be as well...
A few weeks ago, I wrote an article entitled “It’s Not Too Soon to Plan Year-End Fundraising.” While Dec. 31 seems far away (especially if you’ve used up your vacation time for 2016) in fundraising time, it’s just a blink of an eye. To help all of us prepare, I recently chatted with Bill Sayre, president of Merkle Response Group, about the back-end processes for year-end donations—making sure your donations are processed accurately and quickly so you can mail out your thank-you receipts in a timely manner...
As Garth Stein's "The Art of Racing in the Rain" opens, Enzo, the canine narrator, tells a story that will make you laugh, make you cry and make you laugh again. And we’re left with no doubt that Enzo would be as remarkable a human as he was a dog. And that he’d be one heck of a good fundraiser...
When it comes to marketing decisions, it’s not just about the immediate change. The long-term impact must be assessed as well…
Right now there are thousands of major gift officers (MGOs) and development professionals around the world who are being subjected to terrible management. Are you one of them? Just recently, I received a call from an MGO at a large university who told me that she is considering doing something else because her boss...
