Fundraiser Education

I recently remembered a talk I had with a client, Randi Corey of the Hydrocephalus Association, about her experience with surveys.

To enlarge the capacity of any system requires rethinking the assumptions, creating new processes and retooling current processes.

Development or fundraising policies may sound like the boring stuff we prefer to ignore, but they are actually a wonderful tool for fundraisers.

Some people may believe I have always loved asking for money. I haven't. As a child, the only thing I was good at selling was Girl Scout cookies. I've always contended this is because Girl Scout cookies sell themselves!

Summer is a great time to roll up your sleeves and dig into the work of fundraising that will make the next several months even better. So, raise a glass of iced tea in gratitude for the sunshine—and make time for these important, but often overlooked, summer activities.

Don't ever forget to market yourself. You are your most important product and key to your ultimate institutional success. No less than 100 percent daily effort will do. People are watching you—and you set your own performance bar.

This is the final article in a series of three that follow up on questions submitted during the NonProfit PRO webinar that David Gunn from Salsa Labs and I presented. Here are my responses to some of the questions that were raised.

It only takes one person—and it has to take one person—to start a movement or an organization, to turn around a nonprofit, to take a university to the next level, to start or transform a fundraising program. That is the spark.

Continuing my follow-up to the NonProfit PRO webinar David Gunn from Salsa Labs and I presented, here are my answers to some of the questions people submitted. As I said last week, often what one person is asking is the unvoiced question of others.

Collecting data meaningful to gaining better results is within our grasp. GuideStar understands that donors need a way to evaluate their gifts. But they also understand that the data has larger meaning and potential.