Why It Pays to Have Gift Acceptance Policies: True Life Stories—the Good, the Bad and the Ugly fundraising roadmap Feb 23, 2021

Are gift acceptance policies really important? Here are some real-life stories of organizations who found themselves in a dilemma because they did not have policies in place. And others, who were “saved by the bell” because they did have policies in place.

“Give me land, lots of...

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Ten Tips for Starting a Development Office fundraising roadmap Feb 23, 2021

If you are thinking about establishing a development office for the first time (or perhaps need to reassess your expectations of the current development office), here are some helpful tips:

  1. First, determine that you need a development office and that your board has agreed that this is a...
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Smart Donors Need a Smart Organization fundraising roadmap Feb 23, 2021

What Smart Donors Want

We’ve probably used the SMART acronym when establishing strategic planning goals and objectives. Sometimes there are different twists on the acronym, but here we’re using: Specific, Measurable, Action-oriented, Realistic, and Timely. Here’s another way to...

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Finding time for Fundraising When You Don’t Have a Full Time Development Staff fundraising roadmap Feb 23, 2021

When I first entered the wonderful world of philanthropy back in the dark ages (before email, can you believe that?), I was amazed when I found out this was actually a career and that large organizations had staffs of dozens of fundraisers. But when I started my consulting practice I mostly...

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Get Rid of the Tin Cup Mentality fundraising roadmap Feb 22, 2021

One of the greatest people I ever met was Desmond Tutu. It was at an AFP conference, where he talked about the noble profession of fundraising. Too many people, sometimes even fundraisers themselves, see themselves as beggars. We need to abolish the “Tin cup mentality” that often...

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