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No hobbies
People dabble in everything. Restaurants and bed n’ breakfasts are popular semi-serious pursuits – romantic ideas right up until the moment when you’re mopping the floors or scrubbing pots with...
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To give (at all) or where to give?
When you’re talking to a philanthropist about giving to your organization, you’d better know what question they’re answering for themselves. Are they deciding whether to give above and beyond what they...
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Too big
Of all the reasons cited to give or not to give a philanthropic donation, “you’re too big” is the one that I have the hardest time digesting. First, a clarification. In my experience, most people who...
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What I care about, what you care about
Having beat up on the MTA once before for its ads, it only seems right now to sing their praises. I liked this subway ad a lot. 3.2 million minutes saved every day (80,000 riders x 40 minutes saved)...
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Each and every dollar
If you work at a nonprofit, as I do, you might pause and consider: each and every dollar for your organization comes from a gift. Obvious at some level, but if you stop to think about this for a second...
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What your Board members are thinking
Here’s what people do in groups: they look around to figure out the normal way to behave. Your Board members do it too. They are looking around the Board room to figure out what’s normal – especially...
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20 questions every fundraiser must be able to answer
(subtitle: this is why I can’t for the life of me understand how “fundraiser” became synonymous with “not totally integrated with the core work of the organization”) What are your top three priorities...
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Scarcity
A student at a nonprofit school of management told me that they are learning a lot about how to operate under conditions of scarcity – because that’s what the nonprofit sector is like. The catch is...
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More not less
Recently I had the chance to attend a roundtable discussion on how to scale innovations in global development. One of the participants, a successful serial entrepreneur, related an important and...
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Bob Dorf – Two customers
Recently I, together with Acumen’s Global Fellows, had the chance to spend the day in a training session with Bob Dorf. Bob, together with Steve Blank (who writes a must-read blog), is the author of...
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Neglected, then out the door
I was a DIRECTV subscriber for about six years, until I wasn’t. Meaning, over time the ~$65/month (once it was all said and done) started to sting more and more, and while I was generally happy with...
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The perfect toy
Last week we got my son what he called “maybe the best present ever.” It’s a Structures 200 Plank Set. Before buying it my wife and I kept on reading over the description to see if we were missing...
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Individual and Institutional Fundraising
Over the past six months, a greater proportion of the fundraising I’ve been doing has been institutional rather than individual. By “institutional” I mean fundraising from people who have been charged...
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On Behalf of Me
With just a week to go until the New Year, now is the time to reflect on 2014 and to thank those around us for all the help and support they have brought to us and to others. It is also a big time for...
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The $30 million question
I’ve just heard a story of a major nonprofit organization that receives tens of millions of dollars annually from a single donor – around half of its operating budget – but is laying off staff because...
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Here’s what you’ve been able to do
The Citibike app has a nice new feature, a pull-down menu that shows information on your latest ride and on your cumulative rides.* It’s pretty cool to see that I’ve done 613 rides for 113 hours,...
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The $30 million question
I’ve just heard a story of a major nonprofit organization that receives tens of millions of dollars annually from a single donor – around half of its operating budget – but is laying off staff because...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Here’s what you’ve been able to do
The Citibike app has a nice new feature, a pull-down menu that shows information on your latest ride and on your cumulative rides.* It’s pretty cool to see that I’ve done 613 rides for 113 hours,...
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A philanthropy problem
The easiest thing to forget when you are raising funds is this: Philanthropists have a philanthropy problem By “philanthropists” I mean people who consistently engage in philanthropy–people for whom...
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Getting through the troughs
I was talking to a nonprofit Executive Director last week about fundraising. We spent most of our time unpacking the heart of every fundraising meeting: the energy you bring into the room. It’s not...
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