You have a great cause, it needs funds and you’re enthusiastic.  So where do you start? There are many different fundraising ideas profiled on this website.   Fundraising events large and small, letter campaigns, online fundraising and others are included on my top ten list.  But more important than any one fundraiser, a nonprofit needs to […]

Grace Groner lived through the Great Depression, so saving money was her expertise. Nobody knew just how much she had saved until she died in January at age 100 and left $7 million to Lake Forest College, her alma mater…. “She could have lived in any house in Lake Forest but she chose not to. […]

News on two programs available from major corporations: With the Pepsi Refresh Project the company will be giving up to $1.3 million in grants to businesses and nonprofits for fresh new ideas. The project is a crowd-sourced granting program where the public submits and votes on ideas, in various categories, that can change the world. […]

Social media applications like blogs, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook can be useful tools to help you publicize, gain attendees and supporters for fundraisers such as benefit auctions. Not only are these tools free to use, but they enable you to relay short, constant reminders about your  fundraiser. Creating “something to write” can be overwhelming for […]

In last week’s newsletter I featured Marc Pitman’s great ideas about The Pareto Principle: The 80/20 Rule for Fundraising.  (If you’re not on our newsletter list you can sign up here.) Basically the rule says that 20% of your efforts produce 80% of results.  This concept reminds us that effective fundraising is not just about […]

January can be a great month to gain a new perspective on the things we do every day. One of those areas can be in the area of time management. There are so many time management techniques that it can be confusing. Often simplicity is the best! One of the simplest ways of organizing our […]

If you’re going to ask people for money, you’ve got to learn to love objections. Or at least be comfortable with them! Working on a session for the APRA conference in Boston, I’m relearning how fun objections can be. Seriously, if there were no objections, we wouldn’t be needed. It would be so clearly self-evident […]