Blog

In August, I attended the Global Leadership Summit and heard Angela Lee Duckworth’s presentation on Grit. I was fascinated by the concept and certainly could relate. However, the real inspiration came during my time with a client as we were visiting with a nonprofit supporter and community member.

When I’m not traveling, I work out of my home. This involves lots of video calls and, as my dad called it, “paper work”.  There are certainly good qualities to this (dress shirt on top, jammies on bottom) but there are also times I need to work in a more stimulating environment. And for me, that often means my local library.

It’s November and our minds automatically go to being thankful.

We don’t say it enough: we’re so proud of our clients. They do great work and, once they get the chance to share their stories with their communities, the communities respond in a big way.

Sometimes we’re fractured by the choices we make; sometimes we’re shattered by things we would never have chosen. But our brokenness is also the source of our common humanity, the basis for our shared search for comfort, meaning, and healing. Our shared vulnerability and imperfection nurtures and sustains our capacity for compassion.
― Bryan Stevenson

A couple of my DBD colleagues have shared their experiences from this past August’s Global Leadership Summit. I too have been inspired from an extraordinary leader who is making significant impact through his work.

So much has been lost in the terrible fires burning in Oregon, California and Montana. Lives lost. Thousands of acres have been lost. Beautiful vegetation gone.  Homes gone. Family treasures gone.  Sacred hiking trails won’t be the same for years. It’s terrible.

As a consulting firm focused on fund development, we field calls daily from organizations seeking advice and counsel on how to raise money for lots of reasons: annual sustaining, endowment, disaster relief, education and awareness, and of course capital campaigns.

A nonprofit executive director (ED) has a complex role with myriad demands on their time. As a result, one of the concerns we often hear from them is that they struggle with having adequate time to develop relationships and cultivate donors. It isn’t that they don’t know how important donor cultivation is; it’s just difficult to make it a priority over other equally important responsibilities.

In our work with non-profits, faith-based and youth-serving organizations and other charities, we often have conversations about urgency, be it in a case for support or a project timeline. For a lot of nonprofit volunteers, the difference between “urgency” and “emergency” is a bit unclear. When it comes to fundraising, this is a very important distinction.

We don’t say it enough: we’re so proud of our clients. They do amazing work day in and day out. When extraordinary times come – whether that’s an ambitious campaign or an act of nature – they meet the challenge.