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In defense of GivingTuesday

In a recent blog post on this very website, Mary Cahalane wrote a piece entitled GivingTuesday is a day, not a strategy. I always enjoy Mary’s writing and I would say that nearly 99% of the time I am lock step with her around her thoughts. Yet on this particular item, I felt like I […]

Filed Under: Blog, Fundraising Tagged With: fundraising strategy, GivingTuesday 1 Comment

Getting Your Board on Board for a Capital Campaign

My brilliant friends at Capital Campaign Toolkit agreed to share their smarts with you. Read on! At the Capital Campaign Toolkit, we empower nonprofit executives and development professionals with the tools and strategies they need to conduct a successful capital campaign. One often overlooked (but critically important) part of that preparation involves board buy-in and […]

Filed Under: Blog, Boards, Capital Campaigns Tagged With: board engagement, capital campaign Leave a Comment

GivingTuesday is a day, not a strategy

So, GivingTuesday has come and gone again. And many of us will have experienced the email onslaught. And maybe feel a little grouchy about it all. I’ve heard about organizations sending hourly emails out on the big day. I wonder if that’s working for them? And I wonder what it’s costing them… in time, in […]

Filed Under: Blog, Donor communications Tagged With: communication plans, fundraising strategy, GivingTuesday 2 Comments

Watch your weenie words

I call them weenie words. Hedges. Qualifiers. And I don’t like them. Now, I don’t think of myself as a bold person. As a kid, I was an eager follower, not the leader. I do more listening than talking, content to let someone else lead the conversation. I’m cautious. I don’t make fast decisions. But […]

Filed Under: Blog, Donor communications Tagged With: donor communications, fundraising appeal, thank you 2 Comments

Keep it human to succeed

Fundraising is all about being human. Tremendous events are happening every day, all around us. But living in a time like this offers us the chance to learn. And as I try to absorb the daily news – new, impossibly high Covid counts, new, impossibly awful political news – I realize that a learning opportunity […]

Filed Under: Blog, Donor communications Tagged With: donor communications, emotion, identifiable victim effect 4 Comments

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