Past Articles

Capital Campaigns

If You Don’t Ask – The Answer is Always NO!

We hear it all the time, but we STILL find ourselves or our volunteers in that terrible quandary of “is it the right time?”  Well friends, eventually, your prospects will wonder why you never brought up the subject. 
•          Sophisticated donors understand the cultivation process, and if you haven’t moved the process forward, they will lose [...]

Capital Campaigns

Why Endowments Now!

Focusing on building – or establishing for the first time – your endowment fund is perhaps the best way to respond to the challenges presented by a strained economy.
Given the recent challenges nonprofit organizations have been facing, focusing now on strengthening – or perhaps establishing for the first time – your endowment fund, may seem [...]

Fundraising

READ outside your box! nonprofit nugget for you to think about

Read outside your box! Reading for-profit business magazines gives you new ways to look at management and communication.
Read outside your box! Reading arts and leisure newspaper sections gives you conversational fodder in building relationships.
Read outside your box! Reading nonfiction books outside your field expands your perspective on the world.
Read outside your [...]

Capital Campaigns

Are You Serious About Conflicts of Interest?

Is there any issue that creates more consternation for nonprofit boards or management, than the presentation of actual or potential conflicts of interest?  In this day and age, it is fair to assume that most nonprofits, and virtually all 501(c)(3) organizations, have adopted some sort of conflict of interest policy, either as part of the [...]

Donors

There’s Gold in them Hills!

Securing the Future for Your Nonprofit Organization
Especially in our challenging economy, more and more nonprofit organizations are wishing their past leadership had established a stronger culture for planned giving in order to supplement operations with a reliable source of income through a permanent endowment fund.  Understandably, organizations are trying harder than ever to sustain their [...]

Capital Campaigns

How NOT to Fundraise: Lessons from the NPR Fiasco

Last month in this space Jeff Metz posted a wonderful blog titled Cultivating a Donor: Like Cultivating a Garden.  http://www.nonprofitwatercooler.com/2011/02/cultivating-a-donor-like-cultivating-a-garden/  
Too bad that NPR fundraising vice president Ron Schiller did not bother to visit the Nonprofit Water Cooler before he went to lunch with what he thought were representatives of the Muslim Education Action Center.  [...]

Capital Campaigns

Cultivating a Donor: Like Cultivating a Garden

When growing a garden, the gardner has to plan the garden, plant the seeds, provide the right balance of water, sun and nutrients and keep the garden free of weeds and threatening pests. Cultivating a donor is much the same process. You need to have a plan, plant the seeds of knowledge about the good [...]

Capital Campaigns

The Seven “P” ’s Needed to Have a Successful Capital Campaign

Recently, while meeting with a potential client, we were asked the important question, “what do we need in order to have a successful capital campaign?” Since we are often asked similar questions, I’ve been inspired to make it the basis for my latest blog to add to our ongoing conversation regarding our work as consultants [...]

Capital Campaigns

Your Services Are Great, But We’re Flat Broke!

If we had a nickel for every time we heard this comment from prospective clients, we would have enough money to retire.  OK, well maybe that’s an exaggeration, but you get the picture.
Perhaps the irony of needing financial resources to support a nonprofit organization is most apparent when we’re meeting with organizations to discuss our [...]

Ethics

Holiday Cheer, Business Ethics and Employee Receipt of Gifts

Once again the holiday season, the time for giving and receiving gifts, is upon us.  Does your nonprofit have a clear policy limiting or prohibiting employees from accepting holiday gifts from vendors? 
For a nonprofit employee a holiday gift from one of the nonprofit’s vendors can be viewed as both appealing and harmless.  Surely acceptance of [...]