Hello!  Today is the day of the month when I share with you some great news articles and blog posts that have caught my eye over the last thirty days. Many of these links below are from guest writers to StepByStepFundraising, so you’re already familiar with their great work.  I strongly encourage you to check [...]

Greetings!  I hope you’ve all had a great summer!  September is now upon us and many of you non-profit leaders are just now entering into your busy season.  To you, I wish you a great year filled with lots of fundraising success.  For those of you whose busiest season was summer, I hope you met [...]

In a recent edition of the online CharlotteObserver, there was an editorial that really got my attention. It was written by Will Miller, who is a former executive director of Charlotte’s host committee for the Democratic National Convention. The editorial is titled “Nonprofit boards must be bold, not too cozy with staff”. I highly recommend [...]

In my mind, the new year has always really begun in September, rather than January. I know what the calendar says, but it seems that in a practical sense, everything in my life has always gotten going in the fall. So, as we approach this “new year”, I have been in a sort of reflective [...]

I was speaking recently to a man I know who runs a children’s based business that is now a year old. From the outside looking in, everything about his venture seems like a typical non-profit organization, but it is not. Instead of creating a board of directors, applying for his 501 (c)(3), and getting his [...]

One of the worst things you can do, I think, as a non-profit professional is to burrow down inside your own organization, live like you are in a cocoon, and only look from within for ideas. It is tremendously unhealthy to think that you can run a successful mission-based community without trying to get as [...]

Yesterday, I started thinking about the aspects of fundraising that really motivate me. You know, the things that I find professionally and personally satisfying and that keep me coming back for more, even in the face of complaints or rejections. It takes a lot of no’s to get to a yes, so you’ve got to [...]