Executive Issues

Are we simply letting our programs happen without a clear path to achieving our highest and most important goals? As a fundraiser, your ultimate goal should be to build sustainable funding that supports your organization’s mission. Have you instead been focusing your time and energy on the revolving door of acquiring new givers?...

Nonprofit boards of directors operate on many different levels of sophistication, from a 25-member national board that follows “Robert’s Rules of Order” to the letter at every meeting, to the five-person local board that has never heard of “Robert’s Rules of Order,” and on which the sitting members are all friends with the organization’s founder...

Have you hit anyone up this week? Have you twisted arms? Have you called in the big guns to help you lean on your best targets? Do those words make you cringe? I sure hope so. Because if they don’t, then you’ve got some serious work to do to reshape the way you think about fundraising...

A monthly donor calling up to cancel is a dreaded call for any organization. It’s something nobody wants to hear. But it’s important to respond in the right way...

We believe that being a major gift officer is the hardest fundraising job in the industry. It’s incredibly hard. You have to not only develop relationships with donors, but with every one of your colleagues to help you inspire and solicit donors with your organization’s great projects...

At the end of the day our organization and I need highly trained and motivated volunteers to help in a variety of roles, especially fundraising. A board retreat is a great tool to use for this purpose. I strongly encourage annual retreats...

Mistakes are inevitable, how a fundraiser responds to those errors is what can really set the organization apart. Instead of spending all our time on looking for someone (anyone but me!) to blame, our first priority needs to be our donors...

Events are a great way to boost donations and donors too. With the right team, strategies and tools, turn any event to an a success.

There is a lot of talk these days about fake news. Fake news is intentional misinformation. Falsehoods. I recall getting an email from a friend during the 2008 presidential election. The information presented was shocking, but appeared to be from a “reliable” news source. I spent 15 minutes on Google and found that the information was completely false...

Don’t forget fundraising compliance. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that moving your fundraising campaign online means the rules don’t apply. Who rules and manages the Internet? If a donor decides to give to you online, that’s on them, right?...