Fundraiser Education

United Way of East Central Alabama won't set a fundraising goal this year, opting instead to better inform the public on how donations are spent. The Anniston, Alabama-based nonprofit, which provides money to 28 nonprofits in Calhoun, Cleburne and Randolph counties, skipped its tradition of announcing a fundraising goal at its annual kickoff event Tuesday.…

Should charitable fundraising be allowed at work? The popular "Fill the Boot" fundraiser has sparked this debate in Texarkana, Texas. The city manager has placed restrictions on firefighters participating in the event that raises funds for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. He says it creates a safety hazard on roadways, and it should be done off-duty…

The movie Moneyball shows us a situation in which Oakland A’s Major League general manager Billy Beane, due to enormous pressure to perform, casts aside his natural bias (using visual attributes about players to make decisions) and instead turned to a non-natural way to make decisions: using statistics. Who but a crazy person would rely almost totally on statistics to make decisions?...

I learned the hard way and made a lot of mistakes during my first management roles. I didn’t have any formal training on management; overseeing a team came with my first fundraising position. I might have been good at managing a project and making the tough decisions, but understanding how to build and motivate a…

Many smaller nonprofits are growing because they act like responsible grown-ups. And responsible grown-ups looking to invest their hard-earned funds in a nonprofit organization feel confident in doing so with them. Yes, there are other reasons for their success, but when it comes to fundraising, here’s what I think sets them apart...

Imagine a creditor is going to take your car away from you unless you come up with $1,000 by tomorrow. You don’t have the means to pay what’s owed. How do you get the money? Do you ask someone for help? What do you say to them? You would experience a considerable sense of urgency…

The last of the three articles on the roles in soliciting, this week I take up the role that many people see as the sum total of the ask: the individual that actually does the asking. I call it the “rainmaker.” What does the rainmaker do? In fundraising, the rainmaker makes things happen...

Looking over my last few articles, I’ve decided I’ve been grumpy. Maybe it’s the heat and the drought in my part of the country, or maybe it’s the dread of spending the next 15 months being bombarded with political messaging. So, today I am going to take a major turn and write about what I love about fundraising.

It’s that time again. It’s fundraising planning time. The fiscal year closed on June 30. And I bet you are working now on your detailed operational fundraising plans for the coming year. (I hope so anyway!) Why not take time right now to create a complete fundraising plan that can catapult your fundraising to new heights, one that can even transform your results...

Building a culture of philanthropy takes time. It’s about patience and persistence. Just like cultivating your donors. A $1 million gift doesn’t happen overnight. Neither does changing an organization's understanding of the role of philanthropy. Here are eight ways to build a strong culture of philanthropy...