Financing Not Fundraising: 5 Lies to Stop Telling Donors
Nonprofit leaders have to stop telling funders what they want to hear. Here are the 5 top lies nonprofits have to stop telling their donors.
Roadblocks
We Should Expect More From Nonprofit Donors
Many of the ills of the nonprofit sector can and should be solved by educating and strengthening nonprofit leaders, staffs and boards, but there is also work to be done with nonprofit donors. Those private individuals, foundations and corporations that support the nonprofit sector also need to change their approach if nonprofits are ever going […]
Breaking Free of the Fundraising Handcuffs
If you’ve been a fan of our popular, ongoing blog series, Financing Not Fundraising, you’ll want to participate in our upcoming Financing Not Fundraising webinar. The webinar will give you the tactical steps for breaking free of the unrelenting fundraisng handcuffs and bringing more money in the door. Fundraising in the nonprofit sector doesn’t work anymore. […]
Taking the Nonprofit Leap Into Social Media
Heather Mansfield’s new book, Social Media for Social Good: A How to Guide for Nonprofits does a great job of breaking down the brave new world of social media and making it accessible to any nonprofit manager. Her very tactical book is a nice companion to Beth Kanter and Allison Fine’s Networked Nonprofit, which painted […]
Finding Inspiration in the Leaders of Social Change
The news lately has been less than inspiring. The census data released yesterday reports that the economy may be worse than we thought, with 15% of Americans in poverty, and the median income decreasing. After an almost 3-year recession that followed two wars and the 9/11 terrorist attacks, I sometimes dwell on the fact that […]
This Week's The Giving Show
I’m delighted to announce that I will be Michael Chatman’s guest on this week’s Giving Show. Michael was voted America’s Maverick Philanthropist and one of the nation’s leading authorities on new philanthropy. He heads the nation’s largest network of mission-related philanthropists giving up to $50,000 annually, The Association of Maverick Philanthropists. Michael hosts a weekly […]
Overcoming the Catch-22 of Nonprofit Capacity
Ask a nonprofit executive director their biggest challenge and most will say securing enough resources. It can seem a vicious cycle: a struggling nonprofit needs to raise money to build their capacity, but they have to have enough capacity in place to raise that money. So they continue to struggle. A reader of the Social […]
Financing Not Fundraising: Moving From Push to Pull
In part 10 of our ongoing blog series, Financing Not Fundraising, we are discussing moving nonprofits away from “push” fundraising and marketing efforts that force their message on innocent bystanders (like acquisition direct mail appeals) and towards “pull” activities that allow interested prospects to opt in to the organization (like social media, friend-raising events, partnerships). […]
A New Kind of Money for the Arts: An Interview with Rebecca Thomas
In this month’s Social Velocity blog interview, we’re talking with Rebecca Thomas. Rebecca Thomas is Vice President of Strategy & Innovation at the Nonprofit Finance Fund, a national leader in nonprofit, philanthropic and social enterprise finance. She has strategic responsibility for national initiatives, funder partnerships and new online and next-generation services that advance the organization’s […]
Better Strategy for Educational Entrepreneurs
I’m delighted to announce that a book I wrote with Peter Frumkin, head of the RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service at the University of Texas at Austin, and Bruno Manno, senior advisor for K–12 Education Reform at the Walton Family Foundation, has just been published by Harvard Education Press. The Strategic Management of […]