Great communicators treat storytelling as an art. They know it’s among the most effective ways to make a point, set a tone and connect with an audience of any size. Stories bring organizational mission to life, give a face to a case and leave long-lasting impressions. As fundraisers, we are eager to tell stories, and if done well, we have the opportunity to entertain, educate and inspire. We often enter rooms prepared to network, armed with our best stuff, ready to impress! What could possibly go wrong?
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Topics:
Donor Cultivation,
Storytelling
Nearly every big ask in my career as a staffer and consultant – whether it be an ask for a lead gift or a key leadership position – started with a no.
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Topics:
Donor Cultivation,
Major Gifts
Many thanks for the good wishes. My situation has deteriorated dramatically, and I’m currently in home hospice. For now all is stable. But the long-term prospects are clear and not good. And long-term for me is actually very short-term.
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Topics:
Leadership,
Endowment,
Cultivation,
Personal Visits
“The smartest people know what they don’t know.”
I had that drilled into me some three decades ago by a mentor. He practiced this every day, listening carefully to others’ views, thoughts and opinions. He surrounded himself with people who “are smarter than me…at least in one area.”
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Topics:
Asking For Help,
Smart,
Teamwork
Many of the nonprofits we work with find themselves in a unique and delicate situation: they are changing or replacing a beloved historic building to make way for a new facility. While their reasons are sound – greater accessibility, lower maintenance costs, more efficient operating costs – it can be difficult to balance respect of the past with the needs of the future.
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Topics:
Capital Campaign,
Historical Facility,
Preservation
I received this lovely donor gift at a recent charter school event. A 4thgrade student, Marcus, had selected the word “Seasons” and then used his creativity to paint his representation of what the word meant to him.
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Topics:
Donor Stewardship
How much time do you spend on employee issues? Hiring, orienting, training, mentoring…cumulatively, I bet it is a lot. Sitting in a CEO’s office recently, he recounted all his challenges with development staff: “We recruit, orient, train and then BOOM! They’re gone!”
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Topics:
Appreciation,
Development,
Staff
A relatively common concern among nonprofit executives and development directors is that their board members are reluctant to ask for money.
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Topics:
Volunteer,
Board Development,
Art Of The Ask,
Volunteer Management,
Board Management
Recently, I was speaking with a new client about their case for support. One of their primary concerns was how to distinguish their organization’s work with seniors from “the competition.” They identified their competition as other local retirement and assisted living facilities.
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Topics:
Case For Support,
Donor,
Nonprofit
One of the more interesting trends we’ve noticed in capital campaigns is a shift in leadership structure. Instead of individual chairs, we’re commonly seeing co-chairs, tri-chairs, honorary chairs and more. While this may seem like a suspect idea at first – if everyone is in charge, no one is in charge – it turns out to work really well in this critical volunteer capacity.
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Topics:
Leadership,
Campaign Leadership,
Volunteers,
Big L Leadership