What Happens After the Event One spring, I helped create dessert social featuring Miss Oklahoma. The event wasn’t a fundraiser. There were no pledge cards, sponsorship asks, or campaign presentations. Ladies came for the yummy desserts, visited Miss Oklahoma and...
Why Filling a Room Is Never Just About the Event One of the questions I get asked most often after a successful event is, “How did you do that?” People usually assume the answer has something to do with the topic, the speaker, the marketing, or the...
Making connections in the In-Between Times is a winning strategy. Early in my career, I worked for a mentor who shared a piece of advice that has stayed with me for decades. He said, “It’s what you do when you don’t have to do anything that puts you...
And the simple systems strong nonprofits use to catch mistakes early One of the most overlooked challenges in nonprofit fundraising is not donor generosity. It is administrative fragmentation. The duplicate entry.The reconciliation.The spreadsheets.The disconnected...
Over my career, I have heard organizations say, “We just need to focus on programs.” I have also heard, “our messaging is wrong… we just need a better tagline,” or “maybe a stronger image, something eye-catching,” or “we need a heart-wrenching story to compel...
Too many nonprofits begin their fundraising with a number, how much they want to raise, before they’ve even thought about why someone would give. That’s like starting a relationship with the question “Will you marry me?” on the first date. It’s functionally...
