Every day I’m fortunate to interact with talented people from all over the world. (Thank you, interwebz). One common thread too many of us share: a sense that perhaps we’re not quite good enough. Self-deprecation can oil social connections – but it also costs each of us something important. I’m shocked all over again when […]
Are you afraid of commitment?
Or should I say, is your organization afraid? I’ve been fundraising for a long time. And commitment has always been a struggle. Getting the organization to spend time, focus, or money to grow or maintain fundraising is hard. At one time or another I’ve been told: There’s no money for fundraising. (To hire staff, to […]
Trust
Over the past few days, I’ve been thinking about trust. This was spurred in part by a couple of pieces of mail I received. One looked like business mail from our garbage collectors. I opened it, because you can never tell anymore what might be a bill and what might be another sales pitch. It […]
The overhead myth and you
Ah, the pernicious overhead myth. Dan Pallotta’s TEDtalk continues to spur conversation and (even some action) about the way we evaluate effectiveness. Funders have for too long depended on simplistic measurements, largely how much money is spent on administrative costs, or overhead. This provides a measurement of sorts, and one that’s easy to arrive at. The […]
Triage and the nonprofit fundraiser
I wrote last week about our smaller donors and how wonderful they are. The often unsung backbone of many organizations (or the smart ones, anyway), these folks don’t ask for much and offer what’s probably a lot to them. So without sounding too self-serving, I’d like to celebrate another unsung group of people – nonprofit […]