When the Going Gets Tough
The economy is in the tank, donations in every sector are drying up and “Not right now,” are words we are all hearing on a daily basis. “I may as well stop fundraising,” more than one professional has...
View ArticleThe Larger Scheme of Things
This past weekend my husband and I went to a benefit for the Wounded Warrior Project (http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org). It was, as the program announced, “a fully enacted stage adaptation of the...
View ArticleBoards as Partners in Development
Last time, I wrote in response to a reader’s question about who evaluates the Board. That reader, Hassan, has again raised an important question: “… we say that one of the responsibilities for the...
View ArticleForget About the Money
That may sound like odd advice coming from someone who has spent the last 40 years as a salesperson and fundraiser. But over those years I have discovered—often to my chagrin—that if I put money...
View ArticleSerendipity and Stewardship
Serendipity, aside from being a long-ago restaurant I used to enjoy, is having things –usually positive things–occur by chance. So it was when I read in the Chronicle of Philanthropy that according to...
View ArticleCreate a Fundraising Feedback Loop
I was planning a totally different blog post when I came across this article in Wired magazine on feedback loops and I thought: Yes, this is how the development process (should) work. Those who are...
View ArticleMaking It Easy
The other day I went to my local drug store to buy a few things. Nothing out of the ordinary or interesting—band-aids, aspirin, stuff like that. The store was really empty, which I first attributed...
View ArticleThe Beauty of Nudginess
My clients will tell you—I am a nudge. Some of them might even call me a nag. I try not to cross that line, but have determined better to nag occasionally than to let things go. After all, they did...
View ArticleAttitude Adjustment
“Oh no,” said the ED. “We can’t ask the committee members to donate—they are already giving of their time.” I hear that kind of comment a lot and, frankly, it concerns me. Who would be more willing to...
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