Picture this: a wealthy donor opens up the daily newspaper at her kitchen table and sees a heart-warming story about a school-age child benefiting from your nonprofit’s services. On her drive to work, she hears your executive director interviewed on morning news radio. Before an afternoon meeting, the same donor scans her Instagram and Facebook … Continue reading 4 Steps to Strategic Communications
6 Ways to Beat Writer’s Block
The formula for getting work done is simple: Show up and sit there. Think. Stare out the window. Write. There’s no muse, no need for a perfect storm of artistic conditions to come together before you can rack up the pages. You just do the work. The work gets done. But simple formulas don’t always … Continue reading 6 Ways to Beat Writer’s Block
Charity meetings: making decisions and voting
How to hold charity trustee and member meetings, including AGMs, so you can make decisions legally and your charity can run effectively. Clear guidance from the Charity Commission for trustees. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/charity-meetings-making-decisions-and-voting
Strategic Planning Sucks the Life Out of Nonprofits
The nonprofit sector has created a culture in which strategic work is seen as a necessary evil, a process to endure, something to suffer through. Executives often enter the process begrudgingly. They may insist there is no time, money, or support. They may say that the board adds little value, that a bold and expensive … Continue reading Strategic Planning Sucks the Life Out of Nonprofits
6 questions trustees should ask their fundraisers…
Being a trustee feels like a weighty responsibility. There are so many important issues to get to grips with and fundraising is often one of the areas in which many trustees have little or no experience. In fact, many of the skills and experiences they have from their business lives directly apply to fundraising: having … Continue reading 6 questions trustees should ask their fundraisers…
Building fundraising success: the importance of leadership
Time and time again we see the critical role that leaders and trustees have on their charity’s major gift fundraising success. If you are a Trustee or leader, how do you develop the skills that make you effective in either fundraising directly or supporting the executive team? What do you need to know about major … Continue reading Building fundraising success: the importance of leadership
Alumni Engagement: What We’ve Gotten Wrong And How To Fix It
At some level, every fundraiser knows that alumni engagement is an important driver of alumni giving. At the same time, the advancement profession seems perpetually perplexed by how to measure engagement and apply those measures to increase philanthropy. Why is that? Generally speaking, advancement offices have access to a pretty accurate picture of who alumni … Continue reading Alumni Engagement: What We’ve Gotten Wrong And How To Fix It
7 simple steps to qualify your donors
Unsuccessful fundraisers don’t understand qualification. They don’t recognize its power. They wait for the next wealth screened list. They fiddle with it in Excel or in some other database. They make a few calls. They don’t get any appointments. They give up. Then they say the list was no good. Unsuccessful fundraisers don’t use the … Continue reading 7 simple steps to qualify your donors
Creating a DIY wealth spreadsheet
Wealth advisors need to understand wealth trends in relation to their client’s investment strategies. Their companies have the necessary resources to provide that insight for them in the form of studies and surveys. Surveys dealing with wealth allocation are particularly useful for estimating wealth. In this blog, Kenny Tavares has come up with a list … Continue reading Creating a DIY wealth spreadsheet
Wealthy Britons don’t match the generosity of Americans – here’s why
What's it like to give away a billion dollars? One of the few people who know is Stephen Schwarzman, co-founder, chairman and chief executive of Blackstone, one of the world's biggest private equity firms. He has given away more than that already, mainly to causes related to education, culture and the arts, but - with … Continue reading Wealthy Britons don’t match the generosity of Americans – here’s why
Propper Fundraising 