The economy is the top news story on just about every station, every day.  I’ve heard from several nonprofit staff members (current or former) who are experiencing the impact the economy is having on their work. Needless to say, it can be really tough to go through these difficult times.  After all who wants to […]

The first step in having a successful direct mail fundraising campaign is having an understanding of the fundamentals — what direct mail is, what it is not and what to expect with a direct mail campaign.  These are three typical questions that many nonprofits who have not done a fundraising letter campaign before may ask.  […]

The Documentary category at the Oscars doesn’t often get much attention. However for me when I heard that the film, Smile Pinki: A real-world fairy tale, profiled international charity The Smile Train my ears perked up. Smile Pinki tells the real-world fairy tale of one young life changed forever and takes you inside one of […]

Last Thursday, February 12th, 2009, people in over 200 cities around the world hosted events to raise money for charity: water.  This non profit organization brings clean, safe drinking water to people in developing countries. Many of the events were small networking parties, bringing together people who normally only correspond via the web, specifically the […]

In the first part of this series, I introduced the topic of how to handle bad behavior from your board members. With this continuation, I’m throwing out five more examples of how board members can hurt (rather than help) your non-profit and, of course, what to do about it. 6. The Board Member Doesn’t Respect […]

Dear Ms. Sims, We just finished our second annual fund-raiser to benefit our medical/dental pediatric patients at Medical College of Georgia Children’s Medical Center in Augusta, GA. I am writing to you because your newsletter has been an invaluable tool to teach me how to be more successful in raising funds for this effort. I […]

Non-profits are always trying to find creative and inexpensive ways to market their organizations more effectively. Sometimes, you are aiming to promote a specific event, like a fundraiser or a membership drive, while in other situations, you are aiming a bit broader, and just hope to get your organization’s name out there in a positive […]