Michele Goodrich

If you've worked with us for any amount of time, you've surely heard us talk about our axioms. These are tried and true best practices and beliefs we hold related to nonprofit work. In today’s blog, Michele Goodrich reflects on our axiom: “The best cultivation is a great gift-giving experience.”

“To build a strong team, you must see someone else’s strength as a complement to your weakness and not a threat to your position or authority.” – Christine Caine, Australian best-selling author

Have you ever heard someone express something like:

In any given year, grantmaking foundations in the United States award BILLIONS of dollars to nonprofit organizations. 

If you want to increase your chances of receiving some of those funds, consider thinking of foundations as individual donor prospects.

By Anne Derber and Michele Goodrich

If you’re lucky, your organization will achieve key milestones or anniversaries. Maybe you’ll celebrate how many years you’ve been in service to your community or perhaps you’re marking programmatic milestones such as number of pets adopted, ministry impact or neighborhoods served. Whatever you’re celebrating, you have the opportunity to use that milestone to enhance the culture of philanthropy in your organization.

In recent years, nonprofit leaders have shown an increasing interest in developing collaborative relationships with other organizations. Several factors motivate this interest, including: encouragement from major funders, a need to conserve resources, an opportunity to eliminate duplication of services and a strategy for increasing overall capacity.

A fairly common concern among nonprofit directors is that their board members won’t participate in fundraising efforts.  Some board members may claim they weren’t told they were expected to ask for contributions when they joined the board.  Others might say they don’t like to impose on their friends (or they want to avoid their friends coming back to them asking for money for their favorite charity). And still others promise they will help but never follow through.

April is National Volunteer Month. Over the next few weeks the Donor By Design Team will be reflecting on the impact volunteers have on our communities and our world. Today Michele warns us not to ignore “retired” volunteers.

This month, the Donor By Design Team is discussing campaign readiness: the things that (should) happen before you begin a major fundraising campaign.  Today, Michele Goodrich illustrates the benefits of getting a wide team of people involved in the capital planning process.