Executive Issues

Here are three ways the qualities of millennials, often seen as negative, can be leveraged for nonprofit success.

Data has long been at the heart of direct marketing. In the nonprofit world, data allowed us to rent lists of people who had shown a propensity toward giving to causes similar to ours. On the cultivation side, data permitted us to choose which donors to mail based upon previous history and tailor messages to their interests. This smart use of data let us provide donors what they wanted rather than cluttering up their mailboxes with irrelevant offers. And it allowed nonprofits to raise more dollars at a lower cost to more efficiently and effectively feed hungry children, cure life-threatening cancer and support our wounded veterans.

More and more, you hear about how nonprofit organizations either are or should run more like for-profit businesses than they have traditionally. It's a hot topic in the nonprofit sector today, and the conversation continues to pick up steam, particularly with technological advances changing the way donors/consumers engage with brands — both in the business world and nonprofit world.

If you ask most senior-level nonprofit professionals they would admit succession planning doesn't exist or the plan sits and gathers dust.

Volunteers want you to succeed. These true believers will be more than happy to provide financial resources if you ask them. They do so at a rate 50 percent higher than non-volunteers and in amounts 50 percent higher than those who don't give their time.

Attendees will walk away with ideas for creating a leaner fundraising operation, without sacrificing campaign impact.

Project HOPE is breaking down the walls between countries. Rich Rumsey, VP of development and communication at the organization, is breaking down the walls between departments.

How should we deal with arrogance in the major gifts fundraising workplace? Here are my suggestions.

Wounded Warrior Project’s Steve Nardizzi, the Tandon Institute’s Atul Tandon and Miami Children’s Health Foundation’s Lucy Morillo are successful nonprofit executives who know what to look for in leadership. Here are their insights on finding strong nonprofit leaders.

My scope of work for clients kept broadening until one day I realized that desire for recognition was a much more powerful motivator than I had originally thought. And, I realized that the same human inclinations work in the other parts of my life in which I need to get people to do stuff — leading a company, raising teenagers, serving on boards, trying to buy big-ticket items for less ...