What’s holding your fundraising back? Is fundraising scary? I recently posed that question to a group I was training. We were having some fun with a true and false game. Most of the questions were pretty easy to answer. This one was more nuanced. Fundraising is sometimes scary. But it’s almost always needed. So if […]
Your voice is needed! Donors and community: who’s in the center?
Community centered or donor centered? I attended a conference last week (thank you, Liberty Bank Foundation). The estimable and hysterical Vu Le offered the keynote address. If you know Vu, you know we were holding our stomachs and behaving in otherwise undignified ways because we were laughing so hard. (If you don’t know Vu, get […]
How to grow your nonprofit
Too small to grow? In my consulting practice, I’ve worked with some new, tiny or small-ish organizations. They’re all feeling the same frustration, however – how to grow. They want simple things: stability, maybe a salary for the ED or maybe for enough staff to do the job right. They feel the lack of prospects, […]
Dear fundraiser: are you making these big mistakes?
∗This post was originally published several years ago. I’ve updated it to include some helpful comments from colleagues. I hope you enjoy it! Dear Fundraiser, Some things you do really bug me. As your colleague, I’m cheering for your success. So in a helpful spirit, I offer you my list below. I wish you wouldn’t: […]
How you can make a culture of philanthropy work
By now, you’ve probably heard about a culture of philanthropy. You’ve read about how important it is that you have one. You understand that this culture of philanthropy is a reflection of the key role fundraising plays, not just in income, but in the health of an organization. And you know that treating donors as […]