News/Blog

This week’s edition of New York City Fundraising Matters features a great interview my friend Pinky Vincent conducted about the chapter’s mentorship program.  It was thought provoking not least because the interviewed featured another friend, my colleague Regina Cialone, but because it allowed me to ruminate a bit on my own mentors.

On Friday, June 14^th you’ll have the chance to gather with nearly 2,000 of your fellow fundraising professionals at the largest philanthropy conference in New York. This convening is a great day of learning, idea sharing, and fellowship amongst peers. In order to maximize the time I have to learn and network with other participants, I always try to take a few minutes to prepare for my participation in conferences. Here are the steps I follow to get the most of a day-long learning experience.

It’s that time of year again when I have mixed emotions.  On the one hand, I look forward to spring cleaning and the cathartic ritual of throwing out my old unwanted stuff. But, conversely, being a sentimentalist, I sometimes dread having to throw out my old unwanted stuff.  In the end, it’s all about my need to have my house in order.  In fact, you may be using something like the KonMari method to clean and reorganize your home, but what are you doing to improve your workspace?

Technology has provided an ever-increasing number of tools for nonprofits to expand awareness and raise funds. Through combining traditional methods with website giving, email solicitations, and social media, your organization can optimize its ability to acquire new donors, obtain additional information on existing donors, and promote the impact of its mission. Check out the five strategies listed below for improving your organization’s online fundraising and communications.

On April 30^th AFP NYC Co-Chair Vikki Jones and members of the Government Relations committee, myself and AFP chapter members of Western, Finger Lakes, Hudson-Mohawk, and Mid- Hudson joined us in Albany to meet with our respective Senators, Assembly members and representatives. 

In order to govern effectively nonprofit Boards must work collaboratively with development staff and major donors. The most challenging task of CEO’s and fundraising leadership is motivating and supporting their Board in its most important responsibilities: finance, planning for growth, acting as advocates, dealing with crisis and change, evaluating its performance, and ensuring the nonprofit has the resources to fulfill its mission. Review the following strategies and ideas for transforming your board into a dynamic leadership team.

friends, meet new ones who share a passion for improving the world via philanthropy, be reminded about some best practices I’d forgotten and be exposed to lots of new ideas and approaches.  It was good for my brain.  More importantly, it was good for my spirit.

Qualities vs. Experience

I recently attended a CASE (Council for the Advancement and Support of Education) conference and there was no shortage of development department leaders saying they are spending more and more of their time in interviewing and holding searches for open positions, in particular front line fundraisers.  These conversations gave me pause to think about how many hours I spent in hiring new staff. I thought about how many times I was right-on in my choices and when I realized I didn’t make the best choice. 

AFP-NYC Educational Program Recap

As we head into spring, many a development director (and their boards!) may be turning attention to thoughts of a new campaign.  It could be a large, multi-year capital campaign or a smaller, but critical, annual fund campaign.  Regardless, behind every fundraising campaign, the key factors to success are lots of research, planning, and… internal persuasion(!).