If I had a nickel for every time I was asked if I’d work for a percentage of funds raised, I’d be a rich man. But fundraisers that have been in the field far longer than my measly 10 years have long been against this practice.
The idea appeals to the entrepreneur in me. There’s [...]

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Just made a reservation for the New England Association of Healthcare Philanthropy 2008 Conference at the Mystic Marriott Hotel & Spa.
The call to the Marriott reservations person was friendly. He knew of the conference discount. He not only asked if I was a Marriott Rewards member, he even looked up my number for me!
As [...]

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The November question for the Giving Carnival is: “What business practices should nonprofits adopt to maximize their resources?”
Great question! I think a very helpful business practice would be having open books.
Donors are used to living in a world of increasing transparency. And with sites like GuideStar publishing our 990’s, our financial information is more [...]

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Happy Thanksgiving!
Looking for some good quality, inexpensive thank-you cards online, I Googled “Thank You cards.” I was pleasantly surprised to find a link to a fantastic article on how to write a thank you note.
The key points made be the author Leslie Harpold (with my own comments) are:

Greet the Giver - We all love our [...]

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[Warning: rant in progress]
Hang around me for any length of time and you’ll hear me rant about the awful tendency of those of us in nonprofits of getting entitled.
Sit in the back office of just about any nonprofit, and you’ll here people slip into talk that donors “owe” us the same size of gift they’ve [...]

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In reading the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s article on last year’s Record Giving Breaking, I came across this nugget:
Officials at the California Community Foundation, in Los Angeles, were shocked when they received approximately $200-million from the estate of Mary Joan Palevsky (No. 7), whose wealth grew from investments she made after receiving a $40-million divorce settlement [...]

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I started pastoring VCW after a decade of fundraising. I love pastoring and teaching on financial stewardship but I’ve been intrigued with the donor stewardship issues.
We once got a $5000 check–HUGE for our small, central Maine congregation. As a fundraiser, my first instinct was to pick up the phone. As a pastor, I realized she [...]

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Here in the US, we’re about a week away from Thanksgiving. Have you mentally checked out of work or are you preparing for the biggest time of giving in the calendar year?
Before you put your work on hold, consider implementing this tip from Jeffrey Fox’s book How to be a Rainmaker. (It’s the reason I got [...]

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Since last fall, we’ve been working through the basics of asking people for money with the simple four-step formula: R.E.A.L.

Research,
Engage,
Ask, and
Love ‘em/Like ‘em/Live with their decision.

So far, we’ve looked at RESEARCH and ENGAGE and ASK. I hope these steps seem incredibly simple, common sense.
Asking people for money is not rocket science. Don’t get lost in [...]

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All fall, we’ve been working through the basics of asking people for money with the simple four-step formula: R.E.A.L.

Research,
Engage,
Ask, and
Love ‘em.

I love asking people for money! I hope that outlining a simple process like this will help get other people as fired-up about fundraising as I am!
So far, we’ve looked at RESEARCH and ENGAGE. (You [...]

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