12 tips to help you flex your fundraising muscle and build (or rebuild) an effective development office from the ground up.

By Ken Burnett

Fundraisers have to champion accountability and take it to their donors. The media are always happy to exploit any hint of poor management or inefficiency from nonprofits, and the public is only too prepared to follow where journalists lead. Yet fundraisers usually have nothing to hide and lots to be proud of. Generally nonprofits do a lot better than the public thinks they do. We need to illustrate our effectiveness  and efficiency clearly and to strongly champion them, rather than trying to keep our heads down and hoping questions will just go away. So I'd tell those in the development department to: