Category Archives: Fundraising Q&A

Through my own board work, requests for advice from friends and colleagues, and the G2G community, I get to see a wide range of organizations. These are challenging times for most everyone, I must say. Here is my take on the top five issues facing fundraising leadership today. Read More

At one level, the answer is Management 101. Leadership needs to pay attention to its economic model and cost structure. At another level, it’s a systemic problem. The sheer number of nonprofits – many quite small – breeds inefficiencies. Overhead is duplicated, and services overlap. Read More

I am a strong believer in raising children to feel a sense of responsibility to the community. That’s how I was raised, and that’s an attitude and behavior that I have tried to model for my children. It can start early, in small ways. Read More

I will be doing some private fundraising for a tax supported charter school in a low income area. Do you have any suggestions as to our best approach to potential donors including foundations? The primary objective is to build a new neighborhood school, for which about $3M in private funds will be required.
I should start by saying that I don’t think foundations are a good target. Many don’t like capital projects because they don’t directly serve a nonprofit’s purpose. Read More

You may (or may not!) be referring to the hype around Nike co-founder Phil Knight’s $500 million challenge gift to Oregon Health & Science University. Some people seem to see it as a positive thing; it will boost philanthropy as a whole and attract new donors to a variety of causes, they say. But, others are worried. Personally, I think that fear of major donor poaching to be a little suspect, even whiny. How committed are they, if they’ll jump ship at the drop of a hat (or a few bucks)? How engaged are they in your work in general, and the work that their dollars are funding in particular? Are you communicating (remember – show and tell) the impact that your organization and their funds are having? Do they have concerns about management, or feel less than satisfied with their experience? The onus is on you to build and sustain the relationship. Read More

Crowdfunding basically involves collecting money from backers – the “crowd” – for a for- profit or nonprofit initiative, usually on an Internet platform.

There’s no denying that crowdfunding is hot. There are a variety of flavor of crowdfunding out there, and a lot of hype. In the nonprofit world, crowdfunding is more useful for a participative fundraising strategy (i.e., getting a lot of people to give a little something) than significant gift fundraising, I believe. I also must state the obvious: It ain’t free. As with any approach, you have to weigh the costs and the benefits. Read More