Danny Maier

A good friend called me the other day and asked if I could send him “a great case for support.” Sound strange? It’s actually a very common question.

This blog recently appeared on the NAYDO (North American YMCA Development Organization) website. We thought you’d enjoy it too, if you’re a Y or any other nonprofit, school or church.

“Boy, just 24 months after I hire them, they take off!”

Boredom, downtime, thinking time… Sounds like a luxury, doesn’t it? With a plethora of smart phones, laptops and other technology gadgets, there really is never a moment when you aren’t doing something. Whether on the subway, on a plane or waiting for a doctor appointment, there’s no reason to be bored – unless you really want to be successful, that is.

Endowment, stewardship, and relationship development are fundraising tasks all too often placed on the dreaded back burner. We all have one: the place where the really critical tasks go to simmer and eventually dry up and die.

It’s beginning to look a lot like… end of season appeal time. Yes, December is the number one month for giving. I received five appeals this week: two from my universities, my daughter’s university (like the five-figure tuition is not enough!), and two others.

Do you need to be an extravert to raise money? Everybody thinks so, but it that the truth?

In July, a mentor in my life died: Senator Alan J. Dixon. A moderate Democrat from Southern Illinois, he would remind me that I never “worked for Senator Dixon.” Rather, I “worked with Senator Dixon and for the people of Illinois.”  His opponents dubbed him “Al the Pal” in an attempt to link him with typical Illinois political cronyism.

How many times have you thought, “Boy, he is so lucky?” Truth is, luck is never really the reason; it’s the offspring. A mentor of mine, a brilliant physician, said this about luck: “Luck is when preparation meets opportunity… and I make my own luck by always preparing.”