Creating more strategic, financially savvy, and confident nonprofit leaders and organizations.
Nonprofit leaders often start (many things, really) from a place of not feeling worthy. Where this is really obvious, especially this time of year when nonprofit fundraising is in full swing, is in the fundraising ask. When your nonprofit fundraising message — whether a grant proposal, a direct mail letter, an email campaign, or a […]
In the nonprofit world there is often a disconnect between funders of nonprofits and their understanding of the fundraising activity necessary to secure their gifts. Funders (and board members) rarely understand how critical fundraising is, how it works, and what’s required to do it well. But in the hope that greater understanding leads to better actions, I’d like to offer […]
In today’s Social Velocity blog interview, I’m talking with Eric Weinheimer, President and CEO of Forefront, the only regional association that represents grantmakers, nonprofits, advisors, and social entrepreneurs. With 1,100 members in Illinois, Forefront provides education, advocacy, and research, and mobilizes its members around issues that are important to the nonprofit sector. Prior to his current […]
In today’s Social Velocity blog interview, I’m talking with Grant Oliphant, president of The Heinz Endowments (and frequent contributor to their excellent blog). Prior to running The Heinz Endowments, Grant was president and chief executive officer of The Pittsburgh Foundation for six years. Before that, he served as press secretary to the late U.S. Sen. John Heinz […]
A lot of the conversation in September centered around inequality, philanthropy and data. When do data and philanthropy address inequality and when do they actually reinforce it? And if you add to that discussion about whether donors really care about impact; concern about the distracting, addicting influence of social media; and a call for philanthropists to be more supportive of nonprofit […]
Since I was on vacation in late July and early August, I’m combining the last two months of great reads into one. The summer of 2016 certainly was a dark one. From continuing police violence against black men, to the shootings of police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, it seemed we were becoming a […]
May offered some interesting insights into the world of social change. From a plea by nonprofit infrastructure groups for more funding, to some criticisms of philanthropy’s unwillingness to invest in rural economies or provide a realistic runway to nonprofits, to digital’s impact on journalism, to the evolving sharing economy, to a call for more nonprofit […]
Note: Earlier this month I was asked by the Philanthropreneurship Forum to write a piece about nonprofit leadership, which follows. The piece originally appeared on the Forum here. The new millennium has been a difficult one. A struggling global economy, threatening climate change, crumbling education and healthcare systems, and a widening income gap are just a few of […]
In today’s Social Velocity interview I’m very excited to be talking with the co-founders and editors of the new History of Philanthropy blog: Benjamin Soskis, Stanley Katz, and Maribel Morey. The HistPhil blog launched this past June and focuses on how history can shed light on current philanthropic issues and practice. Because how can we hope to create […]
In September there was some surprising good news about climate change. Yes, you read that right. We are perhaps, slowly, starting to address that problem (mind blowing, huh?). And in other news, there was a call for funders to help nonprofits become better fundraisers and some tools to help nonprofits use data in that pursuit. Add to […]
I was speaking to a group of nonprofit leaders recently about how to Move from Fundraising to Financing, and when I came to the part about events, the room went predictably quiet. Looks of shock shot around the room. Events are so ubiquitous in the nonprofit sector, how could I possibly say they have little financial value? It […]
There are many misconceptions about fundraising. One of which is that there is a magic bullet out there (the perfect event, a connection to a celebrity) that will create a financial windfall. Often in the nonprofit world board and staff members so despise fundraising that they desperately search for a shiny object to make it all go away. But the reality is […]
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