I’ve been getting the same type of question from a wide variety of nonprofit leaders in many different sectors. The question goes something like this: “This guy is rich. What’s my next step?” Part of me wants to applaud them. These leaders are...
Capital campaigns are both wonderful and stressful times in a nonprofit. Here are six lessons I’ve learned after 30 years on the capital campaign trail. 1. It’s About the Vision—Not The Money While preparing for a fundraising campaign can be a daunting...
I’ve been seeing a disturbing trend of late: a sharp rise in what I call are BFFs: blunt force fundraisers. Nonprofit leaders willfully skipping planning to jump straight to asking. As the author of Ask Without Fear!®, you know I am an advocate for asking. But...
Capital campaigns are a wild roller coaster ride of vision-fueled excitement followed by long stretches of slow. slogging. work. The slow parts require incredible discipline to stay on course. I know because I’ve helped run 18 capital campaigns at schools,...
I recently blogged about a storytelling tip for nonprofit leaders that I learned from Kindra Hall. The tip is especially powerful in nonprofit fundraising. Kindra took the millenia old story structure – beginning, middle, end – and reframed it as normal,...
Whether your fiscal year starts now or is only part of the way through, January is a good time to evaluate your fundraising progress. To help you’re planning, here’s an email I sent our Fundraising Kick subscribers yesterday. Good morning, Kickers!...