The third Wednesday of October is International Pronouns Day. The day seeks to make respecting, sharing, and educating about personal pronouns commonplace. In today’s blog post we will examine how we can participate in our fundraising work! What are pronouns? They are words used instead of a noun in a sentence. [...]
Is your organization prepared to respond if a prominent staff member or volunteer is accused of assaulting someone in your community? Four nonprofits found themselves in that position this week. Their responses can help other organizations contemplate responding to assault allegations – and how to better prevent them in the [...]
They say, “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” Hopefully your relationship with our board isn’t adversarial, but if we’re being honest it’s not uncommon to have challenges! There’s a power differential between staff and the board, especially for staff further removed from the board. But when you join a [...]
One of the movies my family watched every year at Christmas growing up was Miracle on 34th Street. If you aren’t familiar with the film, it centers around a new gentleman, Kris Kringle, taking on the job of mall Santa at Macy’s one Christmas season. He claims to be the [...]
Are you finalizing your direct mail year-end appeal? Just a few simple edits could help you raise more! If your year-end appeal hasn’t gone to print or your year-end email appeals are still in the draft folder, these tips can guide you through a few last-minute changes. Your appeal letter [...]
October is the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ Ethics Month, so let’s talk about something most of our organizations have been doing even more frequently during the pandemic (or crisis, or election, or natural disaster, etc.) and why it’s an ethical issue: making decisions for our donors by neglecting to ask [...]
Giving Tuesday is just around the corner, and a great way to make the most of it is to encourage volunteers to raise money for you from their friends on Facebook that day! In case you aren’t already familiar, Giving Tuesday is a global day of giving that falls the [...]
Professional conferences are different in 2020. For those of us used to attending in-person events, a virtual conference can feel like a poor substitute. However, virtual conferences existed before the current pandemic, and will be ever more popular even when we emerge on the other side. I do miss some [...]
At many fundraising conferences, attendees say they would like to hear more from their peers sharing what works for them on the ground, in the trenches. The voices of practitioners are often under-represented on the roster. As a practitioner who has spoken many times at fundraising conferences and events, I’d [...]