Fundraiser Education

Which should be more important to your fundraising … efficiency or productivity? If you said productivity … gold star! If you said efficiency (sometimes expressed as ROI) … go to the back of the class! Or, more productively, read this piece by Tom Hurley at DMW Direct. As Tom sees it, the holy grail of fundraising is maximizing net revenue, and sometimes you need to sacrifice a spiffy ROI to do so.

During my career I paid thousands of dollars for career coaches that frankly ended up being a waste of time and money. While I wanted to explore opportunities in government and business, every indicator ultimately pointed me back to the nonprofit sector.

I’m in the middle of Tom Peters’ most recent e-book, "People First," and want to share four vital takeaways with you. These four steps — clear and doable by every organization, really — have the potential to absolutely transform your organization, so take some time here.

Back in 2008, the economy began its rapid decline — a decline that is just now starting to turn upward again. In a ProSpeak column for our December 2008 issue, "Unsteady Times, Great Opportunity," Jeff Jowdy, founder and president of Lighthouse Counsel and member of the FS Editorial Advisory Board, shared 10 ways to navigate rough waters, which are just as relevant here in 2013.

The rise of so many research groups increases the importance of understanding what is based on careful data gathering and analysis and what is not. Much of today’s nonprofit “research” is not as rigorous as it should be, leaving it to readers to be more discerning. Here are five simple questions everyone should ask about nonprofit research.

In December 2012, Dane Grams, director of direct response at Amnesty International USA and co-chair of the FS Editorial Advisory Board, spent "A Minute With Cristi Hegranes, Founder and Executive Director, The Global Press Institute," to discuss the organization's fundraising.

Pamela Barden's Fundraising Matters blog post today is all about passion in fundraising. Reading it, I thought about this column that I wrote in November 2006, shortly after my first visit to the International Fundraising Congress, held each year in the Netherlands by The Resource Alliance. The thing that impressed me most was the passion of each and every attendee.

For our January cover story this year, "Sleepless in 2013," we transcribed that closing session with Dane Grams, national director of direct response at Amnesty International USA; fundraising consultant Jo Sullivan; Jeff Jowdy, founder and presider of Lighthouse Counsel; Marc Pitman, founder of FundraisingCoach.com; and Tom Harrison, CEO of Russ Reid — all of whom will be presenting or leading roundtables at Engage — as well as fellow Editorial Advisory Board member Christina Johns, director of new media at the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.

This week I was in Austin, TX for SXSW Interactive Festival where I presented or facilitated at several social good sessions or events.

Ted Hart celebrates the third anniversary of his Nonprofit Coach radio show with a slew of nonprofit and fundraising experts.