Accountability

The case of Hulk Hogan suing Gawker Media over a leaked sex tape started out strangely. It got stranger still when it turned out that Peter Thiel—a Silicon Valley billionaire whose politics espouse free speech and who has given money to a journalism organization—funded a suit that could put Gawker out of business. And now…

Why is fundraising so hard? One reason: We barely give people a reason to give, much less talk about us and spread the word for us. Really. Can you imagine normal, sane humans saying any of these things? "You've got to hear this: I can give some amount of money and this charity will use…

We’ve all had them—aha moments. Those instances when a light bulb suddenly turns on and causes you to rethink your way of doing things. I asked some of the leading fundraisers to share their biggest aha moments with you. Listening. Straightforward bluntness. Asking more. Creating a genuine connection. Learning to lead instead of follow. You’ll have an aha moment or two yourself. Here they are, in no particular order...

First, the NFL tried to buy itself a talking point of spin. The cost: $30 million, courtesy of a "no strings attached" donation to the National Institutes of Health, which was conducting a study on the relationship between chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and football. "Hey, look, we care so much we are funding the study."…

When the phone rang in November 2015, Danette Crenshaw of Glencoe, Minn., declined to donate $20 to an organization called the Foundation for American Veterans. So she was confused when she got a call from the same group a few days later, claiming that she had pledged $20 and asking that she immediately pay over…

Collecting stories consistently is ranked as the No. 1 storytelling challenge that fundraisers face in the surveys and research that I conduct. This fact was clear in the 2015 research project I did with Network For Good, called The State of Storytelling. Perhaps you can relate to this challenge, too. In my own experience, there…

The Boston Globe's Sacha Pfeiffer, of the paper's Spotlight team, has a fantastic story about foundation trustee Mark J. Avery, who Pfeiffer mentioned in a 2003 report on the pitfalls of inherited trustee positions. In that report, Pfeiffer used Avery as an example, citing the $400,000 annual salary and other benefits he reaped simply for inheriting his late father's trustee seat. Now, Avery is back in the news after a federal court found him guilty on 11 of 17 charges...

The new overtime rule announced last week has an unlikely opponent: a progressive nonprofit federation. U.S. PIRG, a public interest group comprising about 400 state nonprofits across the U.S., called the new rule "unrealistic" and said it would have "significant negative consequences for nonprofit, cause-oriented organizations."...

One night in January, Donald Trump skipped a GOP debate and instead held his own televised fundraiser for veterans. At the end of the night, Trump proclaimed it a huge success: “We just cracked $6 million, right? Six million.” Now, Trump’s campaign says that number is incorrect. Campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said the fundraiser actually…

If you’re like me, you didn’t start out intending to be a fundraiser. I stumbled into fundraising more than 16 years ago when I transitioned from working for a regional grant-making foundation to my first development director job—and it was love at first sight. I loved my job. And I’d finally found my passion! But after two short years, I walked out the door. Why did I leave? And what can you learn from my departure from what remains, to this day, one of my favorite jobs?...