When you are doing the work of relationship-focused fundraising, asking a donor for money becomes easier, regardless of the answer.

 One of the first things I unpack with a new client is how they approach the idea of asking people for money.  

 Traditional wisdom in fundraising says that transformational, recurring donors only arrive once in a life-time for a nonprofit, and are the result of high-paid, individual work by your star major giving officer.

Observing your fundraising program, and focusing your donor strategy on your own culture and unique set of circumstances, will pay off in good choices and meaningful practice tailored to the philanthropic mission you serve.

This is the first series of blog posts titled “The 100-Year Friend”. They explore the world of philanthropy through the lens of Permaculture thinking and the metaphor of the garden ecosystem. It is the culmination of my 25 years of experience in the field of big-box fundraising in billion-dollar campaigns and my thoughts on how we can […]

There is a Mary Oliver poem that is so present for me right now.  It’s titled “The Uses of Sorrow” – Someone I loved once gave me/ a box full of darkness/ It took me years to understand/ that this, too, was a gift

My maternal grandmother was named Frieda. I just found out from Wikipedia, that saucy mistress of procrastination, that the name means “peaceful ruler” and I have to say that is spot on. She was a wonderful mix of autocratic and kind and the reason I do what I do in the way that I do […]

Can we open a hard conversation about fundraising in this unprecedented time? I’m having some terrible, and brave and wonderful and hard conversations right now with colleagues in organizations who are facing unimaginable choices on all fronts of their work. I’m hoping this post can open up some of that conversation to our community to ask ourselves some difficult questions with compassion and as little judgment as possible.