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Just call me Cassandra

Do you recall Cassandra of Greek mythology? Apollo granted her the power of prophecy. But when she refused his advances, he twisted the gift. She’d still see what was coming. But no one would believe her. Development staff often have to be the speakers of unfortunate truths. Like Cassandra, we’re castigated and disbelieved. It doesn’t […]

Filed Under: Blog, Boards Tagged With: fundraising investment, nonprofit management, strategic planning 6 Comments

Should strategy or tactics drive your choices?

Hard choices are part of our nonprofit life. Be honest: if you’ve spent any time working with a nonprofit with a budget short of 3 million, you’ve seen the tendency to put out today’s fires with the water you need for tomorrow. We all assume that we can magically make it work. In a way […]

Filed Under: Blog, Boards, Planning Tagged With: strategic planning, tactics 4 Comments

Is your board making you crazy?

Is your board making you crazy? Driving you right up the wall? You’re not alone. A committed and inspired board leads to a strong organization. A dysfunctional board or one that’s not inspired makes it almost impossible for the organization to succeed. Development staff often spot any board problems. To succeed in our work, we […]

Filed Under: Blog, Boards, Fundraising Tagged With: Board of directors, Fundraising, Nonprofit organization 4 Comments

The best fundraising ideas I ever stole – part one

Talent borrows, genius steals. Oscar Wilde The best fundraising ideas… Are probably already out there for you to use. I’m not a genius. So I will try to give credit where memory allows. It was a colleague who once told me there aren’t any great new ideas – just people who know how to borrow […]

Filed Under: Annual Giving, Blog, Boards, Donor communications Tagged With: Board of directors, direct mail, personalized letters 1 Comment

Letting Go

Letting go is hard. If you’re like me, you have a tendency to want to control as much as possible of your work life. That makes us good at what we do. You don’t want someone indifferent handling donor care – or data entry – right? But that’s a different dance when you’re working with […]

Filed Under: Blog, Boards, Fundraising Tagged With: Boards, Donors, Nonprofit Leave a Comment

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