Fundraiser Education

Your “first date” with your volunteer fundraisers is when they register for your peer-to-peer fundraising event. You may have shared prior secretive glances and witty repartee with them in the form of direct response or a donation, but this is the big move. You are asking them out. You have to decide if you’ll make them pay to date you: Are you going to charge a registration fee?...

Give Local Louisville, a 24-hour effort to aid 363 local charities, ended at midnight Friday, with donations totaling $2,971,457.21. In all, 8,785 donations were made, with Hand in Hand Ministries leading the way with 224 gifts to the event. Louisville Ballet was the dollar leader with $130,700 contributed. Muhammad Ali Museum & Education Center Inc.…

Is "poverty porn" making a comeback? That's the term that some people used back in the 1980s to describe attention-grabbing fundraising ads. Back then, the media was filled with images of starving African children in desperate need of food, seemingly all alone in the world. And folks in the West were invited to save them…

Each year, thousands of professionals need continuing education (CE) credits as a requirement for their profession. It is a must for individuals to stay on top of their games and have the latest knowledge available for their clients. It is also important that professionals stay in contact with their professional peers. An exchange of information is critical both in quality and quantity to professional growth and development...

I told Bill that if he and the other leaders of the organization want to break through their glass ceiling, they’ll need to find out what the emotional issues are—for their supporters, not for them—then very carefully construct a communication program that addresses these....

Hispanic Heritage Month began Sept. 15, and I bet you have seen ads, social media posts, news stories and more talking about it. For those of you who have not yet considered doing outreach or fundraising campaigns geared toward the U.S. Hispanic market, here is some information that might encourage you....

People sometimes don’t give their time or money to the issues that concern them the most, according to a new report from the Chicago Community Trust. The report, released last week, came out of the trust’s 100th anniversary celebration in May. As part of the event, called On the Table, the organization asked local residents…

Investigative reporter Gilbert Gaul got a call from his 82-year-old mother-in-law a few years ago to talk football. A Penn State University graduate and longtime season-ticket holder for the Nittany Lions, she had received offers from the university to upgrade her seats or transfer them to family. Both offers involved charges of thousands of dollars—payments…

We often hear of “competition” between organizations fighting for the same cause. Some lament the number of “competitors” seeking cures, treatments or programs to remedy the same ailment or condition. This notion, that sharing a vision for the future means competing for resources, must be dispelled. In order to flourish, like-minded organizations must support one…

McKenzie recently took me up on my offer for a brief consult. It was a pleasure to speak with her. She’s the director of development for an organization that has multiple fundraising outreach initiatives....