Does your organization hold an annual retreat for board members? And, if you do have an annual retreat, is fundraising on the agenda? Why Should Your Nonprofit Have a Board Retreat? Board retreats serve many purposes: Team building Strategic planning Deep thinking Training opportunities (particularly fundraising) Generating … [Read more...]
4 Strategies to Better Manage Your Nonprofit Board in 2024
If you're a nonprofit leader, managing your board is likely a challenge. Although most nonprofit boards technically manage the ED/CEO, there’s a lot of opportunity and rationale for managing up. If you don’t work to manage your board, your board members may become unruly and make your organization more difficult to lead. It’s important to … [Read more...]
Improve Board Meeting Attendance and Fundraising with Two Key Changes
Board members, like all people, want to feel appreciated. They want to feel that their time is valued. If any board member sits passively during a meeting and doesn’t contribute -- for any reason -- that meeting was a waste of their time. To put it another way, you know you're wasting their time if your board meetings are jam-packed with … [Read more...]
Gift Tables: The Roadmap to Successful Major Gift Fundraising
Gift Tables -- aka Gift Range Charts or Gift Pyramids -- are they key to successful major gift fundraising. That’s because they clearly demonstrate how many gifts you need at what levels to be successful. In other words, they provide a roadmap to your fundraising goal. How a Gift Table Works for Major Gift Fundraising Let’s say you want … [Read more...]
9 Simple Steps to Recruit and Retain Great Board Members
Recruitment and retention of great board members are two major issues for many nonprofit organizations, but I always wonder why? Is it possible that no one cares about your cause? Unlikely. Although there are many tasks to do in order to recruit and retain great board members, it’s basically as simple as finding people who are passionate … [Read more...]
7 Things You Learned in Kindergarten that Apply to Fundraising
Robert Fulghum’s bestselling book, All I really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, is close to 40 years old and is still as relevant as it was when it was written. Many of the credos below, which I’ve taken directly from Fulghum’s book, can be applied to fundraising. As the fall fundraising season gears into full swing, I thought it … [Read more...]
3 Simple Steps to Turn Your Volunteers into Fundraisers
One of the biggest challenges for many nonprofit organizations these days is how to efficiently and effectively use their volunteers as fundraisers. I've been asked to speak on this specific topic many times to help organizations that are struggling with this issue. Fundraising should always be a team effort. It's rarely accomplished by … [Read more...]
Your Nonprofit Board: The Secret to Successful Fundraising
The biggest secret to successful fundraising comes down to one thing: Your nonprofit board. And if you want to raise more money for your organization, you need a specific type of board -- a fundraising board. This is when your board operates as a well-oiled fundraising machine. Sounds impossible? Keep reading... Nonprofit Boards … [Read more...]
How to Fire Utterly Toxic Nonprofit Board Members
Board members can be wonderful assets for your team and your organization, or they can be burdenous anchors, pulling you (and the rest of your team) down. If your nonprofit becomes poisoned by a truly toxic board member -- and you’ve tried using carrots to no avail (see the end of this post) -- it’s probably time to cut ties. Why Board … [Read more...]
Difficult Nonprofit Board? 5 Ways to Evoke Full Cooperation
There’s a popular sentiment shared by many fundraisers: Managing a nonprofit board is a lot like herding cats. In other words, it can feel like a completely frustrating and unmanageable task. If you're frustrated with your board as a whole, with individual board members, or their inability to fundraise, you're not alone. Many … [Read more...]
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