Blog
Budget Your Nonprofit Dreams Into Reality
Your organization’s budget is so much more than an exercise in number crunching; it becomes your to-do list for the year. Your budget becomes the primary method of communicating your organization’s values. As a nonprofit leader, you know that if it makes it into the...
Volunteer for the win-win
In my blog this month, I address staff resistance to using volunteers in nonprofits. If you’re not a nonprofit ‘native’, you probably think the idea that any charity rejects free help is ridiculous! Trust me, it happens every day in nonprofits of all sizes and cause...
Six Ways to Overcome Volunteer Resistance
America’s nonprofits could not survive without volunteers and they play a key role in helping charities raise more money from the community. It is impossible to believe but nonprofit leaders can and do resist using volunteers. Volunteers give their time, talent and...
Luck Is Not A Strategy For Nonprofit Success
Some nonprofits seem to have ‘the luck of the Irish.’ They win the big grants, they attract the big money donors, and they grow and thrive in seemingly rocky soil. It looks effortless to you, from the outside, so it’s easy to believe they have a supernatural secret to...
Collaboration Superpowers for New Nonprofit Leaders
Solving major societal problems such as poverty, hunger or global warming isn’t for sissies. If we’re serious about resolving these issues in the nonprofit sector, it’s going to take a large group of champions and...
Get Ready To Get That Grant In 2019
January is the month we devote to big goals, fresh starts and new practices. If your nonprofit’s Big Goal for 2019 is winning large awards from grant makers, then getting ‘grant ready’ is your first priority. Get Competitive No matter the age, size or operating budget...
Ten Self-Care Strategies to Soothe Holiday Overwhelm for Nonprofit Teams
The holiday giving season is indeed the most wonderful time of year when you work for a charity. The phones ring off the hook and the donations we dream of start to flow in. The boring task of getting the mail each day is suddenly full of excitement as the checks...
Gratitude for Greater Giving: Six Easy Ways to Say Thanks
As we celebrate National Philanthropy Day and Thanksgiving, the month of November highlights the importance for us to say thanks. Expressing heartfelt gratitude to those supporting the work of your charity is cornerstone to the fundraising cycle – ok, that’s a square...
Five Easy Steps to Raising More Money
Have you been beating your head against the wall wondering how you are going to raise money for your cash-strapped nonprofit? Are you ready to take your fundraising to the next level ? Here is the answer you have been looking for in five steps. Don’t worry, you won’t...
Five Milestones for New Nonprofits to Win Grant Funding
There’s nothing more exciting to a non-profit founder than cutting the figurative ribbon on the 501(c)(3) status. You are wildly passionate and dedicated to making a difference and eager to get moving. What you may not know is that most grant makers have policies...
Fundraising Is An Adventure
Fundraising is the lifeblood of any nonprofit. Without funds, programs fail, services wither away, and mission impact is thwarted. Unfortunately, the prospect of fundraising makes most nonprofit leaders as squeamish as the sight of blood. I’m a fundraising consultant,...
Great Fundraising Consultants Never Work for a Percentage
In my work as a fundraising consultant, I am often approached with curious questions about how I am paid. This past week while attending a networking event, a woman asked if I could help her secure grant funding for her house of worship. With a tip of the hip and a...