Do you remember when Snooty, the oldest manatee in captivity, died at the South Florida Museum? Read this week’s Power of Nonprofit Storytelling for a prime example of transparency and honesty when systems go wrong.
Are you a “glass half full” or “glass half empty” kind of person? I know that I get in my moods sometimes. But when I do, I remember my grandmother’s practice of keeping gratitude front and center. Express Gratitude Daily. New from the Veritus Group.
In Why the things you hate make good appeals, Mary Cahalane writes, “That emotional language — isn’t it manipulative?” But no, facts don’t raise money. A must-read to get your fundraising appeal letter past the powers that be.
Are you regularly asking yourself, “How can we truly inspire donors?” Serve or inspire? That is the question from the brilliant Richard Turner.
Seth Godin asks, “What if we celebrated the students who regularly try the hardest, help each other the most and lead? What if we fast tracked those students, and made it clear to anyone else willing to adopt those attitudes that they could be celebrated too?” The wasteful fraud of sorting for youth meritocracy: Stop Stealing Dreams.
Oh, interesting… 2 women entrepreneurs who invented a fake male cofounder say acting through him was “like night and day”. Trust me. I totally *get* this. I can state something until I’m blue in the face. For YEARS. But as soon as Tom Ahern or Roger Craver says it, it’s considered gospel ;). If you’re a woman in fundraising, you’ve no doubt seen this time and time again.
From the Archives
In our year-end fundraising series, we’ve been getting a lot of questions about protecting client confidentiality in storytelling. Here’s a great read from Joanne Fritz. Fundraising with Names Have Been Changed Disclaimers: Creative Approaches Can Protect Personal Identities.
Learning Opportunities
Do events drive you crazy? With Winning Events, our latest entry in the Basics & More™ roster, you’ll get a plan to maximize both impact and revenue from special events by using the strategies and resources utilized by professional nonprofit event planners. You’ll also discover how to brutally evaluate your events with a keen eye to trimming off the nonperformers – so that you focus, and grow, your best events. Next up, you’ll receive a training from sponsorship guru Chris Baylis that I guarantee will result in more (and bigger!) sponsorships than ever (and it’s so ridiculously easy, you’ll wonder why you never thought of it before). And we’ll conclude with a plan to turn your event attendees into donors — and your biggest supporters. This four-week class begins on Monday, September 18 and today is the last day to save $20 on registration. Click here.
Can surveying your donors really help you raise more money? Be there for our next Motivate Monday, when Jeff Giannotto of MarketSmart joins us to share some of their groundbreaking results. Monday, September 11th at 1:00 pm EST. Save your seat here.
Does the face-to-face ask intimidate YOU? Build your asking confidence for FREE. Starting September 13, my good friend, Brian Saber of Asking Matters, will be offering his acclaimed four-part video training with live Q&A. Register here.
View Pamela Grow's profile
I can’t wait to meet with you personally.
Comments on this entry are closed.