A Minute With Cristi Hegranes, Founder and Executive Director, The Global Press Institute

DG: Are there any things you would do differently in regard to your organization's fundraising?

CH: For our first years in operation, GPI's growth was driven by funding rather than a program strategy. If a donor wanted to give money to open a program in a certain country, I would most likely accept the donation and open a program in that country. This was necessary for growing the organization and demonstrating that our programs worked, but if I could do one thing differently it would have been to turn down some of those nonstrategic funding opportunities. GPI's new strategic plan has helped us clearly understand our organizational priorities and has in turn empowered us to ignore funding that is not aligned with our needs.