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SENIOR CONSULTANT

As a Senior Consultant with Donor By Design Group, Kim brings more than 20 years of nonprofit management and fund development experience to her clients. Kim is a skilled communicator and strategist, bringing clarity and focus in the campaigns she supports.

From large-scale galas to business breakfasts, special events are likely part of your fundraising and communications arsenal. Without a strategy, the management of endless details and well-intentioned great ideas can create a muddled, messy and not-so-special event.

Those of you who have followed my blogs or have attended a presentation I’ve given know that one of my favorite fundraising axioms is Leadership is Everything.

Part of any fundraising campaign involves the solicitation of gifts from board and staff. Sometimes we call this the “family campaign.” It often comes at the beginning of an annual effort or during the “quiet phase” of a capital campaign.

A 2013 documentary directed by Andrew Garrison is hands-down one of the best leadership films I have seen recently.  I doubt that was the director’s intent, but from my perspective he has done just that.

I was hesitant to start reading Michael Oren’s book, Power, Faith and Fantasy: American in the Middle East from 1776 to the Present, thinking that it may be years before I finished. It’s more than 600 pages long!

A recent stroll through my garden reminded me of a lesson from Dr. Henry Cloud in his book, “Necessary Endings.“  In it, Dr. Cloud offers a great analogy related to the need for pruning to stimulate healthy growth.

Recently I was enjoying lunch with a client team. At one point in the animated conversation, one of the development staff handed a card to her colleague. It was a simple white business card with only two words:

While flying the friendly skies has become a routine part of my life, I still don’t take safety for granted (code for, “I am still afraid”). Like most folks, I pay little attention to the pre-flight safety instructions, but I do look for the nearest exit and – if seated in an exit row – which way to throw the window in the event of an emergency.

I often tell clients that I wish I could make this work sound more complicated. After all, they’ve brought me in to talk to their team about a campaign that will be vital to the organization’s future. Surely I must have complicated graphs and algorithms to make it all work? When it comes right down to it though, fundraising tactics are really quite simple.