Advice For All You Muggle Fundraisers from Professor Albus Dumbledore

My recipe for dealing with the darkest of times is to figure out what went wrong, make apologies (to donors, your boss, etc.), and put in place an ironclad procedure so it won't happen again. We all make mistakes; it's how we recover from them that shows what we're made of.

Lesson IV
People find it far easier to forgive others for being wrong than being right ("Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince")
Don't be afraid to say, "I'm sorry." Donors respect it. One nonprofit accidently double-charged my bank account for an auto-draft. The women I spoke to was so apologetic and kind that I told her to keep the extra donation. I've worked for and with people who believed apologizing was always the wrong thing to do — "Let's not call more attention to it by apologizing." I don't advocate overreacting, but be willing to admit to mistakes and say those too-infrequently heard words, "I'm sorry."

Lesson V
Youth cannot know how age thinks and feels. But old men are guilty if they forget what it was to be young ("Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix")
There is no magic day when all of today's young adults will wake up and decide to be donors. We have to start reaching them now — while being wise investors of our donors' money. If the bulk of your donation income comes from baby boomers and older adults, invest disproportionately there, but begin experimenting with ways to capture the attention of the younger generations.