Blog
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Scary Nonprofit Quotes 2026
In honor of Halloween, welcome to the fourth not-quite annual edition of Scary Nonprofit Quotes Past editions can be found for: Each edition represents my best attempt to reproduce direct…
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Donor stewardship for the win!
I’ve been asked a lot recently about what separates great fundraising from mediocre and it’s often not what happens during solicitations, but what happens in between. Too often nonprofits invest…
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Curiosity fed the fundraiser
They say curiosity killed the cat. But it feeds the fundraiser. I once had lunch with somebody who had recently moved to Portland to take over the Development Director role…
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Go Team!
Watching the World Cup, I’m often struck by the degree to which some teams display a level of collective play that seems to surpass others, who appear more disconnected from…
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Strategic Planning as a Fundraising Tool
Seeing as a majority of my clients hire me to either help them with strategic planning or fundraising, I often think about the connection between the two topics. Strategic planning…
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The peril of excessive meetings
7 tips to address the challenge of spending too much time in meetings.
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The power of “We Believe”
Early in my tenure as an Executive Director, when people asked me “what does the Oregon League of Conservation Voters do,” I got excited and would launch into a list…
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What’s your plan to fight authoritarianism?
I’ve struggled with how to navigate the tension between doing my day job — meeting the needs of my clients who’re fighting to make the world a better place —…
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Being willing to be uncomfortable
This is a follow-up to an article I wrote more than a decade ago entitled: “Step Out of your Comfort Zone.” I was recently talking to a board member for…
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More year end fundraising tips
November 24, 2025 Last November, I published a set of year-end fundraising tips. Since it was the most clicked on email article I published last year, I figured I should…