wild-horses

First Thing Tuesday

This BLOG is intended to help conservation organizations and land trusts pursue excellence in all aspects of their conservation endeavors. I welcome your comments and feedback to these posts.

Consider starting with a single, time-limited campaign that’s very specific. This is pretty good advice. Tie your blog, Facebook posts, and/or tweets to a single topic (phenological events for example, or a work party or other volunteer event) over a specific, limited period of time....

Here’s the bottom line: There are far more people are willing to make gifts than there are Board members willing to ask. You will hurt your organization more quickly by failing to ask than by asking for too much. ...

At the very moment in history when government leaders are turning to non-profit organizations to pick up the slack from defunded programs, foundation giving is declining, corporate support is flat, and ten percent of individual philanthropists say they will quit giving altogether until the economy...

Early last year, six foundations with a history of funding Executive Director Sabbaticals released a study documenting their effectiveness, entitled Creative Disruption: Sabbaticals for Capacity Building and Leadership Development In the Nonprofit Sector. According to the study: Organizational capacity increased as the second tier of leadership took...

Many organizations, including land trusts, are beginning to use email to carry the first renewal message. Follow-up to non-responders is carried by more traditional first class postage letters. Here are several things to think about if you are beginning to experiment along these lines:

As a consultant, I end up seeing a lot of newsletters. Many are excellent. Some are good. A few need help. Along the way, I have assembled the following list of aspects I find common to many newsletters I consider excellent. Excellent newsletters use line drawings...