July officially starts on Friday – Yikes! – Are you ready? What’s on your list for July? Annual Meetings? Summer field trips? Donor visits?...
Regardless of how your organization approaches Strategic Planning – DO IT. It takes time away from seemingly more-important-in-the-moment activities and can be expensive. But the added costs return to the organization in increased productivity, cost efficiencies, and even improved funding opportunities with donors. I learned...
If you’re like some non-profit fundraising leaders, you are busy building 2016 goals from 2015 results. We raised this much from our special event, so let’s do that again. We got this much from our membership renewals, and we’ve been increasing about 5% every year,...
Regardless, as you consider the parts and pieces of your fundraising plan for 2016, it will help you to use a calendar approach. Calendar not only the due dates, but also the work. ...
By November, you should have most of your fall fundraising pretty well dialed – hopefully, anyway. So now it’s time to start looking ahead to 2016. BEFORE your program people come to you asking if you can raise X or increase giving by Y%, here...
The forecasting question is simply this: Given what I know right now about what foundations, corporations, and individuals have committed, and what I know right now about what requests are still out there, and what I know right now about the requests I will yet...
Back in May, I talked about periodically using some reflective time to “take stock” of where you are right now versus where you thought you’d be at this time (See Taking Stock). Presumably, if you acted on the advice, you a) redoubled your effort to...
Foundation grants should be written by the person closest to the project - the project manager or land steward. Board members have a role to play here as well, because (hopefully!) they are well connected in the community and know key decision-makers. Now – in...
Let’s nominate April as “Foundation Month” – the month where you lay out all your plans for the next twelve months related to foundations and corporate foundations....