Your case for support is about you. It shouldn’t be. Somewhere on your shared drive there is a document called something like “Case for Support — FINAL v6.” Fourteen pages. It opens with the year you were founded. There’s a section on your theory of change, a paragraph on your executive director’s last three jobs, … Read more
You’re not in the relationship business. You’re in the transaction business. Fundraising is a relationship business. It’s in the training, the keynote, the white paper, the job posting, the opening slide, the board retreat icebreaker, and the exit interview of every development director who was just told she wasn’t the right fit. Nobody argues with … Read more
The nonprofit sector broadcasts belonging instead of building it. It lost a decade of donors that way, and now sells the same performance back to the fundraisers. Somewhere in the last ten years, “community” stopped being something you build and became something you broadcast. That broadcast is a business. There is now an industry built … Read more
The sector keeps rediscovering the same findings and calling it insight. Here’s how to tell the difference. This week, somewhere on LinkedIn, a consultant posted a hot take. It doesn’t matter which week. It is always this week. “Hot take: keeping the donors you already have matters more than chasing new ones.” Four hundred likes. … Read more