Executive Issues

Below I outline how you can make Jim Collins' "conscious choices" through three practical stages — disciplined people, disciplined thought and disciplined action — to go from a good organization to a great organization.

These 12 strategies aren't the only things I'd do to transform my donor-development office. They may not even be the most urgent things I'd do, or even the most important. But they are the things I'd do that I think would have the most lasting impact. They would make the most difference to converting my imaginary donor-development department from the under-funded, misunderstood appendage to the fundraising function that I found on joining the organization into the finely honed, high-
earning core activity that I'd like to leave behind when, in the fullness of time, I move on to pastures new (you have to indulge me a little here, in this fantasy). Anyway, here we go.

Marketing and fundraising are two halves of a whole. But when they don’t operate that way, the outcome of each team’s efforts is far less than it could be, undermining an organization’s ability to engage its base.

"I have so much to do but don’t know where to start!" That’s the crucial — but seldom acknowledged or discussed — challenge on which I co-led a vibrant mind meld at the Nonprofit Technology Conference, along with superstars Katya Andresen, Kivi Leroux Miller and Sarah Durham.

When the Southeast Texas Food Bank was incorporated in 1991, it did no fundraising whatsoever, it had two donor names (the executive director and a board member) and its budget was around $700,000. Today, it has 25,000 donor names in its database and an operating budget of $1.9 million.

When the Southeast Texas Food Bank was incorporated in 1991, it did no fundraising whatsoever, it had two donor names (the executive director and a board member) and its budget was around $700,000. Today, it has 25,000 donor names in its database and an operating budget of $1.9 million.

Some organizations seem trapped in a sisyphean cycle of not just making mistakes but repeating the same mistakes again and again. So how do you work at becoming a learning organization? Here's my checklist of five characteristics drawing on Senge's work and my own thinking and experience.

I am just back from an intense four days at the 48th annual AFP International Conference on Fundraising. And I listened to some of fundraising’s most brilliant — and provocative — leaders. Here’s what’s on the mind of some of our smartest thinkers.

Challenging finances cause nonprofits to re-evaluate priorities and pick up valuable lessons, focusing on what's truly important. Adhering to three positive principles will help you survive — and even thrive in — today's sluggish economy.

Challenging times — especially crises — are a great acid test for "learning leadership" — to see if you model an adaptive and flexible approach under pressure. When things go wrong and are at least partly out of their control, great leaders can show how quickly they learn and help their organizations do so ... or not.