How Do You Measure Project Performance – The KPIs That Really Matter

With any business initiative, there’s an expectation that performance is monitored and measured to gauge return on investment and to determine if goals were achieved; business projects are no exception. Since data drives many decisions today, you will likely be expected to measure project performance with data. Here, Bernard Marr shares some of the key […]

Visualizations That Really Work

Not long ago, the ability to create smart data visualizations, or dataviz, was a nice-to-have skill. For the most part, it benefited design- and data-minded managers who made a deliberate decision to invest in acquiring it. That’s changed. Now visual communication is a must-have skill for all managers, because more and more often, it’s the […]

Myth Busting: Trust in Charities is NOT Declining

“The Edelman Trust Barometer, an annual study looking into how public trust has changed across the world, found that confidence in the government, nonprofits, the media, and business has collapsed.” All it takes is a single bar chart showing trust going down and our brains move into hyper-speed to support this emerging story. Scandals, abuse of […]

The Truth About High-Performing Major Gift Officers

CDOs are always looking for ways to monitor, evaluate, and improve MGO performance, but the absence of industry benchmarks makes this task challenging. To meet the growing demand for industry-wide MGO performance data, our Philanthropy Leadership Council experts asked 132 major gift officers from 40 institutions to tell us about their activities and performance. This […]

How charities can connect with HNWI donors

The trend of donating has decreased over time, putting pressure on charities to look for new sources of funding. CAF’s 2019 Giving Report noted that 57% of those surveyed donated in the period; down from 60% in 2017 and 61% in 2016. Understanding these trends, charity digital leaders are revamping digital fundraising strategies by going […]

Top 10 ways to make better decisions

Decisions, decisions! Our lives are full of them, from the small and mundane, such as what to wear or eat, to the life-changing, such as whether to get married and to whom, what job to take and how to bring up our children. We jealously guard our right to choose. It is central to our […]

How Nonprofits Can Build a Return-to-Workplace Plan

Even if your nonprofit doesn’t intend to reopen its physical offices and facilities right away, it’s important to start developing a plan to help mitigate risk and keep your people informed when you do. This is a situation nobody was prepared for, so it will require thoughtful consideration and careful strategizing to create a plan […]

The Janitor Who Helped Put a Man on the Moon

In 1962, President John F. Kennedy visited NASA for the first time. During his tour of the facility, he met a janitor who was carrying a broom down the hallway. The President then casually asked the janitor what he did for NASA, and the janitor replied, “I’m helping put a man on the moon.” Take […]

Interview with Professor Michael Arthur, President and Provost, UCL and Lori Houlihan, Former Vice-Provost (Advancement)

The pioneering work of Michael Arthur, President & Provost of UCL and Lori Houlihan, former Vice-Provost (Advancement) have given HE Advancement a seat at the top table. Their campaigns raise unprecedented funds, while challenging and changing the culture of institutions along the way. Here, Sir Eric Thomas, Karen Cairney and Colin McCallum had the enormous […]

5 Building Blocks of Great Advancement Talent Management

James Murphy shares: “One of the most frequent questions I’m asked is why our profession has such a high rate of turnover of professional fundraisers. I often hear that the average tenure in a job for a major gift officer is 18 months. A partial answer might be that as demand for good fundraisers has […]