Prepare Your Team for Successful Outreach – Here’s What You Need
Making outreach to major donors requires more than pre-qualified prospects. That’s essential, and it’s the reason MarketSmart exists. But even…
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What Fundraising Organizations Can Learn From Trusted Leaders
The most productive philanthropic partnerships are built on trust. Trust is built on shared convictions and candor, not self-promotion or…
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The Key to Improving Fundraising Results: Improve Your Posture
So many ill-conceived ideas about metrics and other means of evaluating fundraising performance are rooted in the terribly false notion…
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Why A Gift Officer’s Actual Job Is NOT to Raise Money
From the nonprofit’s perspective, the job of the gift officer often seems to be to convey wealth from supporters. But…
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The Best Long Term Fundraising Strategy: Recruiting Volunteers
If you recruit the right volunteers (those with giving histories) and give them tasks worthy of their talents almost 80…
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Introducing the Staff Position You Never Knew You Needed That Can Boost Major Gifts Efficiency and Reduce Turnover
There’s too much to do and not enough time to do it. While this may be a common feeling in…
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The Leadership Attribute We Need Most: Master Weaver
We will not build better advancement operations… – or sustain fundraising success – or build stronger cultures of philanthropy –…
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Fundraisers Need to Be Passionate About More Than Mission
Many job descriptions claim to be looking for a fundraiser who will be “passionate about our mission.” That’s a good…
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Fundraising Boss vs. Advancement Leader
Fundraising bosses want you to get gifts; advancement leaders want you to build partnerships. Fundraising bosses want you to solicit…
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The Power of Calm Leadership: Why Desperation Deters Progress
If you’re desperate, I can’t help you raise money. Nor can anyone else, though some may claim they can. Desperation…
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Key Performance Indicators That Ultimately Undermine Performance
Are your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) rational and sustainable? Do they appear to enhance productivity while actually raiding the cupboard…
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The Two Deadliest Words in Fundraising
The two deadliest words in fundraising are: Annual Fund The first word suggests one gives simply because the Earth orbits…
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Donor Cultivation: A Term We’re Using Out of Context
“Cultivation.” It’s one of the most frequently used words in fundraising, but used by so many in so many different…
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A Fundraiser’s First Obligation
A fundraiser’s first obligation is to philanthropy itself. All ethical fundraisers and fundraising organizations must commit themselves, at a bare…
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Strategies for Nonprofit Leaders in an Era of Declining Confidence
What must nonprofit leaders do to counter the public’s declining trust in institutions? First, the decline is real and pervasive,…
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The Ongoing Discouragement of Our Best Fundraisers When Their Talents are Most Needed
I hear from them almost every day. Smart, hardworking, principled, mission-driven fundraisers. They share examples of the mindless, myopic metrics…
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Donors Won’t Feel Like They Belong if Your Advancement Staff Doesn’t
How strong is your advancement team’s sense of belonging? I have condensed a great deal of donor research, both my…
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Donors Won’t Feel Like They Belong if Your Advancement Staff Doesn’t
How strong is your advancement team’s sense of belonging? I have condensed a great deal of donor research, both my…
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Philanthropic Partnership Building Begins With Setting the Right Tone
Gone are the days – or so they should be: Of imagining in splendid isolation what donors should do for…
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Most Senior Fundraisers Don’t Need Training; They Need Treatment
You’re always outnumbered. No matter how much fundraising experience and philanthropic wisdom you acquire, you’re always surrounded by completely inexperienced…
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It Takes Two to Drive Success: How Rethinking Nonprofit Leadership Can Solve Your Gift Officer Turnover Problem
As turnover in the nonprofit sector continues to plague so many organizations, and not just with major gift officers, it’s…
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Revolutionizing Fundraising by Building a Philanthropic Supply Chain
Donors are looking for a better philanthropic value proposition. They want to know how their dollars will be turned into differences.…
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7 Ways Bad Leadership in Fundraising Drives Away Your Best Gift Officers
“It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do. We hire smart people so…
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If you don’t like wealthy people, it’s time to think about a career change
Nobody gives when they feel the professionals working for an organization or institution dislike them. I’m writing this today because…
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