Introducing, Louis Diez— The Checklist Guy for Fundraising Excellence

Some people really know how to be givers.

You know what I mean don’t you? From time to time all of us come across people who simply want to help others without seeking anything in return. Don’t you agree?

That’s how I found Louis Diez.

I noticed that he developed and shared his donor visit checklist online so other fundraisers could benefit from his experience at no cost to them whatsoever.

I liked that!

So, I reached out to him to see if I could share what he produced. Thankfully, he said, “Yes!” So here it is below (Note that my staff reorganized it a bit to make it pretty.)

There’s more!

What I didn’t realize at the time was that Louis was a checklist machine.

During our discussion he told me that he was inspired by a book called The Checklist Manifesto – How To Get Things Right. He exclaimed, “Look, most emergency rooms have checklists! Fundraisers should have them too.”

He continued by saying, “The book explains how even seemingly not needed items should be put on a checklist because, although you might say that this is just common sense, it really helps you remember how to be consistently better— so you raise your overall level of performance.”

If you like his donor visit checklist (posted above), then you might also want to visit his website to get some of his other fundraising resources for free.

Thank you again, Louis. All of us really appreciate what you’re doing for the sector. You are, indeed, a giver!!

About Louis: Louis Diez currently serves as Executive Director of Annual Giving with Muhlenberg College. Previously, he was Director of the Annual Fund and Development Business Operations at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Associate Director of Development at Johns Hopkins SAIS. In this last role, he led annual giving efforts and worked closely with the Latin-American Studies Program to fund major priorities. Prior to Hopkins, he was the annual fund director at a liberal arts college in TN.

Of varied interests, Louis holds an MBA from CUNEF, a PhD in Business Administration from Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (both in Spain), and an MM in Music Performance from the University of TN. His thesis applied neural networks to predict economic performance indicators. He has also published articles on the investment value of musical instruments, edited peer-reviewed papers exploring applications for economic theories of legitimacy, and been featured in the music business section of the College Music Society’s journal. He writes about philanthropy on his blog at www.marktlab.com.