Volunteers

For many people, the outcome of living in a consumer society is the belief that more stuff equals more happiness. So we look forward to the boost in happiness that the next new car, bigger house or the upgraded-thing-of-the-hour will provide. But, the upgrade doesn’t get us "happy," at least not for long. When the buzz from the Beamer quickly wears off, we start to focus on the next thing that we think will up our happiness quotient...

It was a new vice president for development, and expectations were high. I was serving on a campaign steering committee and enjoying a day full of high energy. The new staff leader entered the room quietly, sat in a row of chairs against the wall and proceeded to either text or read emails until he was asked to speak...

Once a development officer told me, "I’ll be damned if I’ll follow up with board members. They’re adults and said they would do these things. So they should just do it." Well, that person isn’t going to make it as a development officer. Such naïveté. Such arrogance. Competent development staff help their board members to…

We all know that millions of Americans enjoy volunteerism. All of us strive to identify, recruit and orient volunteers each year. We also know that, for our organizations to continue to stimulate volunteer engagement, we must provide meaningful opportunities for volunteers to engage in win-win situations. In order to provide those, we need to have those volunteer experiences for ourselves...

Recently, I attended an activity for volunteers. The purpose of the event was for our volunteers to help stuff backpacks for needy children. The smiles and response following this hands-on event proved to me that this type of activity is vitally important. It is all about building relationships...

While freezing temperatures continue to chill many in the U.S., the boys of summer have nevertheless returned for the start of the 2016 baseball season. What better way to mark the occasion than drawing a parallel between the baseball book and movie, "Moneyball," and fundraising? OK, enjoying a hot dog and beer at a ballpark…

Peer-to-peer is the fast food of fundraising. It is fundraising by the numbers. It is about setting up a system with known drivers and letting that system work. It is big. It is exponential. It is predictable...

Like many of us in the nonprofit industry, long ago, I had the misfortune to work as a development associate for a charity rife with dysfunction. For the sake of this article, let’s just refer to it as a nonprofit serving young people. I’m not in the business…

I took my 25-year-old special needs daughter to a cheering competition Saturday. She is a competitive cheerleader along with about 20 other special needs young women. My daughter has Down syndrome, autism and Type 1 diabetes. And, brace yourself, she also has attitude. She says things like "What’s up, girl?" with just the right notes. Or, if she doesn’t want to acquiesce to a request, she says, "Hmm, let me think." She puts her finger to her pursed lips, and wanders off, successfully avoiding the task. Girlfriend can work the system...

At Turnkey, "incentive" is a dirty word. We know, through our work over almost 30 years, that if we are attempting to elicit a behavior through enticement or incentive, we are on a bad path. If a person is exhibiting the behavior we desire (like fundraising) in order to get something (like a really nice gift), we have a problem...