Executive Issues

I think you might be making your job as a major gift officer even harder. Richard and I often run into CEOs, board members, finance and programs staff who don’t know how major gift programs work or, at best, are just down right skeptical that it really works...

Maybe you are a chief development officer who must report to your board that fundraising for the previous year was flat. Or worse, that it was down. Or maybe you’re new to your organization and were brought in to turn around declining revenue...

One of the great fallacies in the nonprofit fundraising world is that fundraising professionals take donor relationships with them from organization to organization. It is not an effective strategy, and it is wrong and unethical. It is a significant way fundraising differs from other professions...

“All politics is local” is a famous saying by late Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill, who believed the success or failure of elected representatives had more to do with how the constituents in their home districts viewed their job performance than what was happening nationally. Based on my experience, I believe nonprofits also tend…

Many nonprofits are stuck. They’re tethered to their early decisions—often made by others who came before them. But times change. Organizations evolve. Or they don’t...

Being disciplined to work out your plan is the absolute key to major gift success. Conversely, it’s the downfall of many major gift fundraisers. At Veritus, we know that introducing a disciplined approach to major gifts will lead to deeper relationships with donors, higher retention rates, lower value attrition rates and much more revenue...

Being disciplined to work out your plan is the absolute key to major gift success. Conversely, it’s the downfall of many major gift fundraisers. At Veritus, we know that introducing a disciplined approach to major gifts will lead to deeper relationships with donors, higher retention rates, lower value attrition rates and much more revenue. It’s […]

Several years ago, I was asked to be part of a meeting between a nonprofit and a significant business in the community. At first glance, one would expect that the nonprofit did not have the total resources it needed for success. The business the nonprofit was soliciting had tremendous resources, plus community clout. I was just asked to attend and observe...

Whether you’re a one-person charity or a multinational nonprofit, the question of whether to go “big” or stay “small” is always there. Make the smart choice, and you’ll soar. Guess wrong, and you’ll be stuck in the doldrums—or worse...

In my first executive director position, I forgot about the board. Chalk it up to inexperience, but I didn’t yet understand how the board could make me a more effective executive, or how they could boost our success. While I met all the technical requirements and complied with the usual responsibilities, in my heart I felt the board was mostly a nuisance...