Category: Fundraising
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Guest blog: Grantwriting as a Team-building exercise
Guest blog by Sami Fournier of Element Exercise. Faced with the prospect of submitting a grant proposal, consider what a great opportunity you have before you. Beyond being a challenge…
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Connecting fiscal management to strategy
I recently published a guest article for 501Commons on the importance of building a fiscal management system that connects with strategic decision-making. The main point: you should track revenues and…
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Ideas for Donor Involvement
I once talked to an Executive Director who resisted inviting major donors to volunteer or become more involved because “I don’t want to seem like I’m bothering them. Their gift…
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Guest blog: 5 Questions to Ask When Using Marketing to Grow Your Non-Profit
Guest Blog by Natalie Henry Bennon — [email protected] Marketing gets a bad rap. And sometimes it’s deserved. I don’t like being told I need a new thing when really I…
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Have you sharpened your axe lately?
A friend was recently describing to me a challenge he faced as a new board member of a relatively healthy organization, but one that seemed to have a frenetic culture.…
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Building your donor prospect list
One of the biggest mistakes I see made by both nonprofit staff and board members (and political candidates) is to underestimate their own personal list for who to ask for…
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Don’t make this membership fundraising mistake
I recently was speaking with an organization that had gone to great lengths to identify different levels of membership benefits that would be received by their members based on the…
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Outcomes Schmoutcomes
I am a big believer in nonprofit organizations measuring the outcomes they achieve. It’s an essential tool for any staff/board to know they’re having the impact desired over time. And…
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Tips for fundraising letters
Clients regularly ask me what goes into a good fundraising letter sent to previous donors. Here are some tips, in no particular order: Spend time thinking about the opening sentence…
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Tracking time
To manage your time, you need to know where it goes. The only way to know where you spend your time is to log it. Your memory tells you that…