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Who should go on a first visit?
Recently, an Executive Director asked me if he should bring his Chief Development Officer, an accomplished, seasoned fundraiser, with him on first visits with new prospective partners or wait until...
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What is Fundraising?
I started my Course in Exponential Fundraising at Harvard last week standing at a big white board, marker at the ready, and asked the class this simple question: “What is fundraising?” The group...
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Close your first gift
Failure to close your first gift, regardless of its size, is one of the biggest obstacles to your success in creating partnerships. Of course, at first we need time and spaciousness with people to...
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Don’t forget to celebrate
Celebration builds community. I don’t mean just celebrating the end of a campaign or a transformational gift. I’m talking about frequent celebrations with your whole team – your board, your...
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Death by PowerPoint
In four separate meetings over the past week I was in the audience as speakers leaned heavily on PowerPoint presentations. Each presentation consisted of slide after slide of bulleted text copy. They...
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Fear and the quick death of your campaign
Urgency is a time-tested technique for fundraising. Turning the urgency dial to “Hot” in times of crises is entirely appropriate and necessary. After the earthquake in Haiti or the tsunami in Japan,...
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New Study on Role of Brand for Nonprofits
My colleagues at the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard – the same Hauser Center that hosts a Course in Exponential Fundraising – have just released an illuminating 18-month study...
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The Office: funny show, bad place for a meeting
Trapped! She runs one of the world’s largest fashion companies and agreed to see me about working with our organization. Following my own philosophy – See “Never take a first meeting in an office” – I...
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See and clear obstacles
Most would agree that successful fundraising is all about harnessing resources. Well, my blogger red flag goes up whenever I hear “most would agree.” So here’s why “most” end up leaving resources on...
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The Secret Sauce to Fundraising Effectively
Here’s a fundraising secret that will relieve a great amount of angst: resources flow. Resources like time, creativity, networks, ideas, passion and money. These resources are ours to leverage....
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