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Do you have to be great to do good?

Are you good enough to do good?

Have you ever wondered if you were good enough for your work? In our thirst for information, ideas and improvement, we might be forgiven some pangs of inadequacy. I know you care about learning (you’re reading this, after all). And that’s absolutely necessary. But in the meantime, let me reassure you: You are good enough […]

Filed Under: Blog, Caring for yourself Tagged With: confidence, Fundraising, learning 3 Comments

Are you feeling stressed? Why good might be better than perfect

nonprofit staff: good might be better than perfect

Are you a perfectionist? I’m going to make a wild guess: you care a lot about your work. If not your organization, then about the mission. We wouldn’t be doing this work if we didn’t care. A lot. That leads me to another guess: you tend toward perfectionism. About 30% of people are perfectionists. That […]

Filed Under: Blog, Caring for yourself Tagged With: learning, nonprofit management, perfectionism 3 Comments

Oops! What you learned from your fundraising #fail

Fundraising failures can be learning experiences

Last week I wrote about fundraising mistakes. They’re important, because they’re a wonderful, if sometimes painful, way to learn. I asked for your contributions. So this week, we’ll hear from some friends and colleagues. Their experience might help you. And well, we’ve all been there – it’s a good reminder you’re not alone. Jim reports: […]

Filed Under: Blog, Caring for yourself Tagged With: fundraising mistakes, learning 4 Comments

Fundraising bloopers: I’ll show you mine, if you show me yours

Mistakes are a wake-up call. Share your fundraising blooper

Have you ever made a fundraising mistake? I’m hoping you answer “yes”. Mistakes are important in our field. We’re adding daily to our knowledge of fundraising. That new information often comes from mistakes – or in their nicer outfit, experiments. Those of us who love direct mail and email know how important those experiments are. […]

Filed Under: Blog, Caring for yourself Tagged With: failures, Fundraising, learning, mistakes, testing 5 Comments

Why I want you to fail this year

Fail better, fundraise better

  No, I don’t want you to have a bad year. But a safe year, with nothing learned? That’s a bad year. Failing can be good! And being afraid to fail? Not so good. An example: I know I need to refresh my website. No, check that. I know it needs an overhaul. But I’m tied […]

Filed Under: Blog, Planning Tagged With: failure, fundraising appeals, learning, testing 11 Comments

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Copyright © 2019 · Mary Cahalane · Hands-On Fundraising · P.O. Box 183 · Plantsville, CT 06479