I’m not normally a fan of New Year’s resolutions. They unnecessarily pressure people and create unrealistic goals. For the last 40 years I have avoided setting New Year’s resolutions for myself but after the dumpster-fire that was 2020 I’m compelled to make a resolution – to become a bigger and [...]
Teamwork is all the rage right now. It's often touted as an organizational value, a key to productivity, and a criterion used to hire, reward, and promote. But there's an unpleasant and unproductive flipside to collaboration that deserves discussion. In short, too much teamwork might be burning out your best [...]
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 [...]
On November 26, 2020, the second annual National Day of Conversation (NDOC) took place in Canada. This virtual day of conversation was founded in 2019 by me and my co-founder Wanda Deschamps to raise awareness about sexual harassment of fundraisers in the charitable sector. In 2018, the Association of Fundraising [...]
Black Gives Back. According to a study by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, black people give 25% more of their income than their white counterparts. We are, hands down, the largest group of givers in our country… and yet, we don’t see recognition in the media. Rather than realizing how generous [...]
Not long ago, I presented a webinar for Bloomerang on Organizational Planning in Times of Uncertainty. One of the questions that came up was how to meet, receive and be present for the challenging moment that we’re in: In our turbulent time, so many leaders, friends and colleagues are struggling [...]
2020 has been a year for the ages. Not only are we dealing with a global pandemic, but also civil unrest, a shrinking economy, partisan politics, and environmental disasters, leading to uncertainty about 2021. Not only does this create unease in our personal lives, but also professionally, and across all [...]
We are in a worldwide panic -- fear and anxiety are breeding faster than anything else. This is our call. And we need to answer the call. This means it’s time to go on a quest. Are you ready? What’s the hero’s journey? Joseph Campbell describes the beginning of the [...]
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 [...]
Prior to the pandemic, nonprofit professionals were often guilty of treating self-care as a low priority, with no thought for self-care tips. With many of us suddenly finding ourselves working from home earlier this year, additional challenges arose to taking care of oneself to be able to effectively serve others. [...]
Perhaps the most challenging concept for corporations to implement is that of “Corporate social responsibility.” This is a corporation's willingness and ability to be socially responsible and help the community – both the local community they serve as well as more marginalized global communities. The concept of philanthropy however is [...]
It’s hard to imagine a time before GPS and Google Maps, even back before the days of those AAA maps for long car rides. But before automobiles and trains or Trans-Atlantic flight, cartography was as much a mystery as it was science. In 150, Ptolemy’s Geographia warned of mythical characters [...]