Thoughts on Nonprofit Leadership

To Get Board Members to Fundraise, Engage Them in Creating Transformations board relations for executive directors

To really excite your board about fundraising, focus on a transformational fundraising strategy rather than a transactional one. If your board is reluctant to fundraise, you may be giving board members transactional fundraising tasks to oversee, like asking for money and monitoring revenues....

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A Fundraising Role Board Members Don’t Mind board relations for executive directors

Board members may resist fundraising. They may see raising money as solely management’s responsibility, not knowing their proper role. Or they get caught up in all operational details involved in planning and executing fundraising activities and don’t understand why the development...

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Getting Board Members to Fundraise board relations for executive directors

Your board is the most valuable leadership asset your nonprofit has. Board members teach your community how to interact with your nonprofit. And you want your community to be excited about your cause and financially support your mission. You need board members who carry your message to the world....

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Overcoming Why Board Members Don’t Fundraise board relations for executive directors

Is your board excited about fundraising?

Mine wasn’t. When I first became an executive director, one of the first things my board said to me was, “We are not a fundraising board. That’s why we hired you.”

Ugh. I knew I had my work cut out for me if finances were going to...

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Raising More Money with the Resources You Have development planning for executive directors

Do you, as executive director, want to increase your nonprofit’s capacity without increasing the budget? It can be done.

Meet the maternal health education agency whose funding was about 80 percent from government, just under 20 percent from foundations, and the rest individual donations....

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How to Hire Good Development Staff for executive directors work relationships

This week, I give you excerpts from my book The Sustainable High ROI Fundraising System to guide you in hiring fundraising staff.  

The Development Director’s Role

“A development director is a fundraising generalist with skills and experience in a wide variety of revenue...

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Why I Pay It Forward for executive directors work relationships

Executive directors must accomplish a lot of daily tasks, while also dealing with unforeseen emergencies. No matter how well you plan your week, something urgent always crops up. Making th­e job frenetic. As an executive director, in any one day you:

  • Manage operations
  • Satisfy funders and...
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A Small Change that Can Make a Big Difference for executive directors relationship building

This week we are exploring how a small change in your marketing strategy can make a big difference in your fundraising results. To explain, here are a couple of excerpts from my latest book The Sustainable High ROI Fundraising System.

Targeting Donors

“Attracting donors takes time and...

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How to Increase Fundraising Capacity Without Incurring Extra Costs financial management for executive directors fundraising

You’re an executive director. Finances are tight. You need to grow your fundraising capacity but don’t have the money to do it. What do you do?

Most nonprofit leaders focus on executing those fundraising activities that raise the most gross revenues, not accounting for costs,...

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