Like many Americans, I’ve been inundated with news stories about the Big 3 automakers attempts to get a federal loan of billions of dollars. Yes, billions. So I started wondering, what if the Big 3 were to teach nonprofits how to fundraise? Some of the humorous answers included: Lose touch with your donor base: Ignore [...]

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I just spent 4 hours in the rain putting these signs for our Fall Pops Benefit Concert. The industry calls them “yard signs.” I’m hoping that they’ll catch people off guard in the midst of the signs of the political candidates! It’s a good reminder that as fun as web 2.0 is, offline marketing still [...]

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The Don’t Tell the Donor Blog had a chilling link to a New York Times article. Here’s a quote from the article: About 30 nonprofit agencies that held several accounts at Freedom, each with less than $100,000, lost money because the F.D.I.C. considers the multiple accounts of a single depositor as a single account. The [...]

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The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s Prospecting blog has an interesting post about a new planned giving tool. Apparently, it’s a CD that donors can play to see the benefits of making a planned gifts and a charity can customize it to be the “charity of choice” for the example. But wait! There’s more: What worries some [...]

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Here’s another story in the growing collection of unassuming people that become noteworthy philanthropists by leaving millions of dollars to charity. The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports that James Ebbert, the son of a sharecropper, left $10 million to charities in Pennsylvania. When reporting on this high-school-turned-business-owner: He lived frugally and invested his money well, says [...]

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I had fun today creating a parody of a sales letter for fundraising consulting. You can see it at www.GuiltFreeFundraising.com. It’s loosely based on the calls I’ve gotten from people over the last 10 years asking me to do their fundraising for them. It’s all meant in good fun. I got the idea from Fred [...]

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Just read a news brief from the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s daily entitled Small Colleges Say Board Members Have Been Poor Fund Raisers. In the article, Wesley Wilmer is quoted as saying: “If college presidents and development staffs are unhappy with board members’ understanding of fund raising, they should take the initiative to get them trained,” [...]

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Just read this in MaineBiz: Report: Maine philanthropy has grown Maine philanthropy has increased dramatically in recent years, according to a new report from the Maine Community Foundation and the Maine Philanthropy Center. “Giving in Maine: A Report on Philanthropy 2008″ found that individual giving has grown sevenfold over the last 22 years, from $67 [...]

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Another episode of Oprah’s Big Give. I’ve watched all three episodes in three different ways: via recording on my DVR on TV like I did in the 1990′s on abc.com! Who knew TV shows could be so adaptable to technology? This week’s program brought out two interesting themes: creative engagement of donors and the dangers [...]

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Last week, I blogged about what I like about Oprah’s show “The Big Give” and about my concerns. I still like it. I loved the way the guys teamed up for the Denver orphanage. The shock and gratitude on the directors face moved me to tears. Another person got voted off. His “kindness” was considered [...]

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