Last week I tuned in to the Nashville t.v. series premiere. Almost the first words to come out of someone’s mouth (a dad to his daughter): “Honey, it’s bad manners to talk about money.” I recently explored the money taboo as it relates to fundraising. Today’s post digs a bit deeper. Subsequent posts will dig…
DetailsOctober 15th marks the one-year anniversary of the community based Occupy movement. Since philanthropy is about creating a caring community, I’m taking a quick break from my current series of posts about boards and fundraising to remind us what we need to do to fully occupy philanthropy and connect with our best donor prospects as…
DetailsThe inimitable Hugh MacLeod shows us the key to success Of all the tips I give board members about how to become successful fundraisers, by far the most important is this: Make your own passionate commitment first. Making this commitment entails just three simple things. And I let folks know that these things just happen…
DetailsMost fear of fundraising boils down to two factors: (1) fear of rejection, and (2) fear of loing stupid due to insufficient knowledge/skills. It turns out these fears are relatively easy to overcome. But it requires some serious reframing. A move away from begging and towards offering a gift of opportunity. The opportunity to feel joy,…
DetailsWhy are trustees so nervous about fundraising? I’ve found there are two key reasons. Understand these reasons, and we can put an end to the fears in two easy steps. ONE: Overcome Fear of Rejection. We think we’re asking for ourselves; begging. We’ve been raised that it’s impolite to talk about money. Even worse, no…
DetailsThis is baseball heaven, Tweet courtesy of @bradmangin Story+Customer Experience+Voice = Community The Giants embraced social media during a time of magic for the team in 2010. The franchise hadn’t won a World Series in 54 years. Finally, it was all coming together in an exhilarating way. And social media was there to the…
DetailsCheck out this month’s nonprofit blog carnival. It’s all about how to build, maintain and evaluate a great nonprofit website. There’s a contribution from yours truly , as well as nine other posts to take your website to the next level. It’s still surprising that with all the great marketing advice available to nonprofits today,…
DetailsMaybe this wasn’t a good place for fishing? We spend too much time thinking about the right way to ask people for donations, yet not enough time thinking about who the right people are to ask. It’s like buying a perfect fishing rod and reel, learning how to cast, and then casting off into empty…
DetailsLast week I wrote about the evils of using jargon. I got lots of responses. It’s clearly hard for people to get outside of their ‘insider’ mindset. When we use words at work daily, they begin to seem normal (even though we may’ve never used those words before). Before working at a social service agency,…
DetailsIt’s a long way from “I like you” to the altar. Where is the ? Ask yourself if you’re trying too often to rush to the altar without an engagement. If you’re wondering why those folks who… “liked” you on … gave after being strong-armed by their friends… bought a silent auction item while first-time…
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