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Good fundraisers understand the value of asking questions in pursuit of answers. Great fundraisers aren’t satisfied with getting answers; they crave clarity. To understand a potential donor’s true interests, motivations and reservations we need to move beyond simple Q&A, taking the time to understand the deeper meaning behind their responses. To achieve greater clarity, we need to push past their initial response and invite them to share more. A few follow up questions can unlock a wealth of important information.

SENIOR CONSULTANT

Jan Brogdon, CFRE, is an experienced fundraising professional, serving the YMCA movement for more than 20 years. Her deep understanding of annual and capital fundraising will help our clients prepare and run successful campaigns. Her experience in working with volunteer leaders will help our clients make the most of this invaluable resource.  

I’ve never really shared my resolutions or talked with others about theirs. It always seemed a private thing to me. At the end of each year, I like to think about what I could have done better and what that means to how I will live in the coming year.

That being said, my resolutions usually turn out to be “character improvement”-type resolutions. I usually take on just one a year – and it will take me years to run out of things to work on!

SENIOR CONSULTANT

Robyn Furness-Fallin, CFRE, offers financial development and volunteer leadership consulting for nonprofits and higher ed.

Happy New Year from all of us at Donor By Design! We hope your first full week of 2014 is off to a great start. This is the final blog in a three part series. In the first blog, I reviewed John Norcross’s suggestions for keeping resolutions from his book Changeology, and Jim Collins’ concept of the 20 Mile March from his book Great By Choice.  In the second blog, I talked about firing bullets before cannonballs, and using SMART goals to assess the effectiveness of your ideas before you take them to a bigger roll-out.

Once again, Happy New Year from all of us at Donor By Design! In the second blog of this three-part series, I’m going to dig deeper into one of John Norcross’s suggestions for keeping resolutions, and some ideas from Jim Collins’ new book, Great By Choice. (Miss Part I? Read it now.)

Happy New Year! This is the time of year so many of us make resolutions for the upcoming year — some of them we even keep!  Last year at this time, I decided to stop drinking any kind of soda. I had become convinced I didn’t need the diet or the sugary versions. And you know what? This was one I actually kept. I’ve been soda-free for a full year!