Category: Fundraising
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a lesson from my yoga instructor
My yoga story told a short story that she applied to life, but my mind immediately applied to nonprofit organizations. Chapter 1: You’re walking down a street, and you fall…
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Personal stories in fundraising
Telling Personal Stories when doing Fundraising Meetings Often, we spend so much time honing the stories we’re going to tell to donors about our organization, that we fail to also…
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Some thoughts about donor stewardship
They gave! Now what? You want donors to have an ongoing, steadily deepening relationship with both you and the organization. So you should steward that relationship. Hence, donor stewardship. Stewardship starts…
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Overcoming the fear of rejection
When people say they are “afraid” of making fundraising asks one-on-one with a prospective donor, there are many facets to that fear. One is the age-old fear of rejection. Everyone…
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A primer on nonprofit dashboards
What’s a nonprofit dashboard? Why should my nonprofit consider getting one? And how should we develop one? These are some of the questions I address in a recent guest blog…
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Thoughts on developing a culture of philanthropy
Beyond the nuts and bolts of fundraising, one topic that often emerges when I work with clients is how to imbue the organization with a culture that supports fundraising growth.…
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Essential Major Donor Toolkit Workshop
On June 2nd in Portland, I’ll be offering a special 3 hour workshop I’ve put together on the essentials of an effective major donor program. It will be tailored for…
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Should your nonprofit use a Resource Council?
A Resource Council. A Council of Leaders. These are two names I’ve experienced as alternatives to an “Advisory Board,” which is more common in the nonprofit world. What I like…
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Donor Stewardship Basics and Beyond
I recently put together a presentation for The Databank on effective donor stewardship, which some people call donor cultivation. You can check out the slides from the webinar below. …
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Your organization is an intermediary
One of the more interesting words I recently heard used to describe nonprofits is as “intermediaries.” Under this way of thinking, your organization isn’t the protagonist in your story. Instead,…