Blog
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Ideas for Donor Involvement
I once talked to an Executive Director who resisted inviting major donors to volunteer or become more involved because “I don’t want to seem like I’m bothering them. Their gift…
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Guest blog: 5 Questions to Ask When Using Marketing to Grow Your Non-Profit
Guest Blog by Natalie Henry Bennon — springtalestrategies@gmail.com Marketing gets a bad rap. And sometimes it’s deserved. I don’t like being told I need a new thing when really I…
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Have you sharpened your axe lately?
A friend was recently describing to me a challenge he faced as a new board member of a relatively healthy organization, but one that seemed to have a frenetic culture.…
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Evaluating on two levels
When talking to organizations about evaluation, I often find myself explaining evaluation on two levels. These levels ask two related, but different questions. 1. Did the organization take the specific…
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One big idea and three takeaways
I recently was given good advice worth sharing. In any event you are putting on, you should be able to identify the single, one-sentence big idea that will get people…
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Invest in professional development
A recent Huffington Post blog article focused on the importance of the nonprofit sector investing in professional development. As a whole, the sector has a poor track record in training…
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Building your donor prospect list
One of the biggest mistakes I see made by both nonprofit staff and board members (and political candidates) is to underestimate their own personal list for who to ask for…
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Don’t make this membership fundraising mistake
I recently was speaking with an organization that had gone to great lengths to identify different levels of membership benefits that would be received by their members based on the…
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Outcomes Schmoutcomes
I am a big believer in nonprofit organizations measuring the outcomes they achieve. It’s an essential tool for any staff/board to know they’re having the impact desired over time. And…
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Smashwords.Com interview
I recently completed a Smashwords.com interview about my E-Book, Why Organizations Thrive. Admittedly, it was an automated interview, so no human being actually asked the questions. But it was a…