I conducted formal research over eight years with more than 400 advancement officers about determining significant gift ask amounts. They were presented with two donor case studies with 21 financial and behavioral variables. Remarkably, the suggested ask amounts from these officers ranged from $25,000 to $3,000,000! Why it matters: We were all raised with different financial circumstances, and our regard for what ...

We all know the saying, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” Like most advancement professionals, I did not start my career in the early 1980s thinking I would become a fundraiser. After graduating with a Master's degree in public health and clinical nutrition, I secured a grant-supported part-time position at a new statewide food bank in ...

A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing – no particles or even electromagnetic radiation, such as light – can escape it. Not to get too geeky, but when I ran across this NASA Data Sonification of a Black Hole through interstellar gas, it got me thinking.  You might want to read the rest of this post while listening to this out-of-this-world soundtrack. Almost every ...

Dear Nonprofit CEO, After working with hundreds of nonprofit CEOs over 20 years as a consultant and 20 years as a frontline advancement executive, I think I can speak with credibility about the strategies and behaviors of a strong nonprofit leader. At the risk of boiling my reflections down to binary comparisons, I will do so nonetheless in the interest ...

Nonprofit organizations, large and small, along with private sector employers, are now on their own after the recent SCOTUS ruling with regard to imposing vaccine and face covering mandates by private employers. Mandates alienate some people because they are forced to do things they do not want to do - some for legitimate reasons and many for spurious reasons. Adding ...

A silver bullet is hard to come by, especially one to keep your organization thriving and vital to your stakeholders. A January 5th article in Forbes by Edward Segal addresses the 10 biggest risks and threats for businesses in 2022. They are:

1. Data Breaches
2. Climate Change
3. The Great Resignation
4. Obtaining Talent
5. Pandemic
6. Lack Of Inventory
7. Burnout
8. Inflation
9. Financial Crises
...

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