Past Articles

Capital Campaigns

How Do We Know When We’re Ready for a 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

What the “hack” is going on with the Bloom Metz web site?

What do you think of when you hear the word “hack”?  Maybe coughing, tree chopping?  In this digital age, it’s likely the dreaded computer violation!  Bloom Metz was recently hacked and while it was an inconvenience and a cause for concern, we wanted to share the experience – and some Internet safety tips –with you.
Here’s [...]

Ethics

How Could This Happen to our Nonprofit? – Fraud Protection

If you Google the phrase “nonprofit fraud prevention”, you will get thousands of articles and presentations, primarily from the accounting world, discussing the far too often occurrence of fraud or embezzlement in nonprofits of all sizes.  These articles are full of excellent suggestions on how to prevent fraud, embezzlement, or theft by valued employees, yet there [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]