You can’t do that. **** Last week, Olive Cooke killed herself by jumping off the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol UK. The Coroner has not yet established the cause of death, but her family has Read more…
With a young family, my wife and I decided we couldn’t support Ebola in the field by me going to West Africa, so she suggested we embrace the Walk Without Borders campaign instead! We fundraised Read more…
“Usha, do we have a plan B?” This recent question from a client with whom I am working on an exciting major gift development plan, triggered the topic for this blog. We were preparing to Read more…
‘…they called me back two hours after we presented, to say not only did they really want to work with us, but they had even decided to cancel the final stage of their own process, Read more…
Inspired by the “Day of Philanthropy” presented by the VU University of Amsterdam last week on the status of the philanthropy in the Netherlands, we decided it was a good time to release our report Read more…
Why we should all adopt the retiring Giles Pegram CBE* as our role model. The police officer was puzzled. The women driver appeared to be quite annoyed about the fact that he’d pulled her over. Read more…
This is the second of two blogs looking comprehensively, and provocatively, at the state of relationship fundraising In the last blog, we defined relationship fundraising, and looked at its implications, strengths and weaknesses. Today, we Read more…
At every conference I have ever been to there has been a session called ‘the next big thing’ and delegates turn up expectantly hoping for a silver bullet that will give them all the answers. Read more…
This is the first of two blogs looking comprehensively, and provocatively, at the state of relationship fundraising. In this first blog, we define relationship fundraising, and look at its implications, strengths and weaknesses. In the Read more…
Hello everyone! The first Top 10 of 2015 is a fact. Again 10 awesome posts. With a range of interesting topics. What is your favorite? Congrats to Charlie for his #1 post about donor retention! We Read more…
I haven’t always been a fundraiser, but having been in the sector for a while now. I have to admit, I love it. I love how much we share ideas and I love that even Read more…
A question fundraisers were never asked…until now. Your answers were revealed at last week’s AFP conference in Baltimore, Maryland. Responses to the survey “How Philanthropic are Fundraisers?” came in from 19 countries from places as Read more…
Having trouble framing the right case for support for specific donors? Do all your proposals address roughly the same issues? Are all your proposals aimed at roughly the same target group? Are you looking to Read more…
(And they’re all about your audience) There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of tactics we can apply to get better fundraising results. But what are the big things that make the really big differences? 1. You’re Read more…
No one can doubt that the mobile phone is now a firmly established fundraising tool. As a sector we’re taking full advantage of the opportunity. Text to donate asks appear on trains, the tube, the Read more…
Integration: such an easy word to say, such a wonderful idea. But such a difficult thing to do. A Utopian dream or the latest thing that just makes our jobs harder? It’s not the first time I’ve used this classic quote from Confucius, but he does nail it: “Life is simple, but we insist on making it complicated”. (more…)
You probably remember it much as I do: the white wristbands, the star-studded Live8 concert, the remarkable celebrity ‘finger click’ ads, Blair and Brown and the G8 summit engaged and involved. And all of it Read more…
Across the charity sector we literally spend days on the creation of boardroom presentations, we meet for hours in cross-functional working groups, and the other half of the day we’re either in one-on-one or team Read more…
We’ve all worked with gift officers who “wing it.” We’ve probably even caught ourselves “winging it” at one time or another. What do I mean? You’re winging it if you sit down at your desk Read more…
or The ENORMOUS difference in value between ‘what’ and ‘why’ Charlotte and Emily have never met. They are the same age, live in the same area, have the same income, the same outgoings and the Read more…
The sense I get is that many fundraisers think “Stories oh yeh – they’re important but not critical”. It’s seen as a nice to have. “What we need for our fundraising campaign is a catchy Read more…
If you find Facebook is not really working for your organisation, I am willing to bet that it is not Facebook’s fault – it’s yours. Too many take too lightly on their social media work Read more…
Where are all the challengers? The agitators? The objectors? The realists? The more sophisticated and developed our Sector becomes the more people seem happy to stay in line or fall into line. We seem to Read more…
I live and work in Vancouver BC. It’s a short, two hour flight from San Francisco and the Silicon Valley. Vancouver is experiencing a tech boom right now. Start-ups are everywhere you turn – they Read more…
Sometimes it seems like good writing has become one of the lost arts of the fundraising practice. Email and social media may be to blame, or too many demands on our time, or our Read more…
