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Leadership at All Levels

Posted by Bruce Berglund

I get asked this question at least once a week: what’s the single most important thing for successful campaigns? Most who ask this question suspect my answer will be something about wealth screening, stewardship, powerful cases, endorsements from community leaders, etc.

The simple answer is … leadership. And that leadership has to come from all levels of the organization.

Leadership takes the form of a graphic designer who spends the extra hours to make materials simple, elegant and powerful.

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Topics: Leadership, Nonprofit Management, Campaign Leadership, Nonprofit Leadership

AT THE END OF YOUR ROPE

Posted by Jon Simons

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.

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Topics: Leadership, Campaign Leadership

AGAINST THE ODDS

Posted by Thom Peters

A note from the author – remember, your results may vary.

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Topics: Leadership, Campaign Leadership

MOMENTUM

Posted by Bruce Berglund

This month, the Donor By Design Group is challenging you to take action, moving from resolutions to results. Today’s topic? Creating and keeping momentum in your campaign.  

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Topics: Capital Campaign, Endowment, Annual Campaign, Campaign Leadership, Fundraising Management

DON’T SETTLE

Posted by Thom Peters

In this series, the DBD Team will take a deeper look at some of the axioms we use when working with our clients. In today’s blog, Thom Peters reflects on our axiom: “Don’t settle.”

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Topics: Leadership, Capital Campaign, Annual Campaign, Campaign Leadership, Leadership Cabinet

HIDDEN AGENDAS

Posted by DBD Team
Our board just isn’t a fundraising board.

We hear that feedback from nonprofit leaders – both staff and volunteer – nearly every day. Whether it’s said with regret or with frustration, nonprofits, schools and churches are clearly puzzled as to why their board seems disengaged or focused on less-important minutiae.

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Topics: Volunteer Leadership, Art Of The Ask, Volunteer Management, Endowment, Campaign Leadership, Annual, Capital, Big L Leadership

MAKING LEADERSHIP LESS LONELY

Posted by Bruce Berglund

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

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