Perspectives

Don’t you wish you had a crystal ball to tell you if your next major campaign will be successful? Well, we don’t have a crystal ball, but we do have the next best thing – a feasibility study.

It’s vital to keep abreast of trends in annual giving. Some of the trends in annual giving include, but are not limited to: an increase in donor advised funds; an increase in on-line giving; increases in organizational giving; a decrease in the past few years in overall individual giving as we learn more about the full impact of the 2017 tax laws and donor behavior and motivation.

Trends come and go. But sound major gift principles are timeless and invaluable to our success in fundraising. Yes, we read “trends in major gifts fundraising” when advancement firms, along with information from businesses and research programs, provide us this valuable information. We look for insights into what we might do better, what might we be missing and what can we improve. Over the…

Stewarding donors is a vital and indispensable in ensuring retention and continued loyalty – not to mention creating opportunities to deepen your donor relationships. As defined in Merriam Webster dictionary, stewardship is the conducting, supervising, or managing of something, especially the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one's care. For us in advancement, our…

Bringing new trustees on board offers great and unique opportunities to inspire and engage them in your work.

A follow up to Part 1 of Best Practices for On-Boarding New Trustees. Bringing new trustees on board offers great and unique opportunities to inspire and engage them in your work.

Diversity and inclusion is all about building community, appreciating differences and building empathetic leaders. Learn more from Kelly Gagan, Vice President of Advancement of Nazareth College in Rochester, NY.

Join Kelly Gagan, Vice President of Advancement at Nazareth College in Rochester, NY to learn more about her leadership philosophy including the critical importance of communication, empathy, listening and leading from behind.

Your next major donor is likely already supporting your organization and, perhaps, is even engaged at some level. Learn how to inspire, teach, and engage donors to a major gift.

Last week, you met Penelope and learned how her gift officer started to deepen her inspiration, learned about her interests and engaged her in the university’s work. Now, let’s learn what they did next.

What donors find important when being thanked for their gift. The five P’s of memorable and meaningful thank you notes.

The face of philanthropy is changing. Women give and give generously, but only to those organizations that earn their support.

by Cynthia Woolbright People leave their boss, not the institution. Be prepared to hire the right boss. Based upon his research in leadership, Michael Watkins, associate professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, cautions, “the root cause of transition failure always lies in a pernicious interaction between the situation, with its opportunities and pitfalls, and the…

by Cynthia Woolbright While incremental changes on boards are occurring at our colleges and universities, we are still woefully short from true diversity on our boards. The Association of Governing Board, in its Report on Consequential Boards (2014), recommended that “boards must improve their own capacity and functionality through increased attention to the qualifications and recruitment of…

by Cynthia Woolbright Imagine the incredible things your team can accomplish when they demonstrate World Cup worthy values. Here are five values that might just inspire your team. The USA Women’s Soccer Team kicked the summer off by igniting record-breaking levels of enthusiasm and interest in the World Cup 2019 games. As I followed their award-winning journey, I was taken with the attributes…

James Husson (Boston College) spoke with us about best practices for working with Board advancement committees.