Get Your Give On!

Ahh the sweet smell of volunteering. Add a dose of kitchen and nirvana may have been achieved.

New Normal and Healing Stories

Matthew Sanford is a Yoga teacher and has been paraplegic since the age of 13. He shared his unusual take on the mind-body connection — and his wisdom on knowing the strength and grace of our bodies, even in the face of trauma and aging. His thoughts about healing stories struck me.

WFP USA Webcast – Mother’s Rule the World

In celebration of Mother’s Day, please join Isatou Jallow, chief of women, children and gender policy at the United Nations World Food Programme and Rick Leach, president and CEO of World Food Program USA as they discuss the critical role mothers play in improving household food security and the nutritional wellbeing of their children.

Stewarding Our Donors – Communication by Another Name!

Penelope Burk has released some preliminary information from the fourth annual Cygnus Donor Survey. The last survey question is always a doozy – What could unleash your philanthropy at a whole new level? And wouldn’t we all like the answer to THAT one!

Nonprofit Technology 2012

The Chronicle of Philanthropy 2012 Technology Guide has some great information in it.

RT @fundchat: #fundchat prep: A Pinteres

RT @fundchat: #fundchat prep: A Pinterest Primer – http://t.co/o67kojFE #nptech #fundraising #nonprofits TY!!!!

Infogram Organigrams – Visual Data for Storytelling

In the March 8 issue of The Chronicle of Philanthropy the front page article on visualizing data got my attention. I have to say – how well we share our story has always been at the heart of fundraising success. Telling our story using graphics is a GREAT idea! Not that we weren’t doing it before – but the graphics were photos and I will agree really boring pie and bar charts.

Acoustic Fundraisers – Five Tips to Great Field Research

As I walked the dog and listened to On Being, I thought about how we fundraisers are acoustic biologists.

Having Enough

The key to our success as fundraisers is to sharing stories of the people we serve with those who can provide the financial support to make a difference. When our focus is donor-centric, we can share the right stories, at the right time. I have always said my job as a fundraiser is offer education (stories) and opportunities – it is up to the donor to make the decision that is right for them.

Monthly Giving – Five Ideas

In the fundraising community we have been talking about monthly giving for a long time. As fundraisers we know the value monthly donors can add to our fundraising efforts. In some cases monthly giving has jumped the shark – face to face street fundraising is all about monthly giving. Some organizations are using this method with good results – others not so much. In this post I am referring to asking donors to commit to monthly giving through your appeals – on and off line.