When I worked as a development director, I gathered our program staff once a year to brainstorm “what if” questions: What if we had all the money we needed? What if we could focus on the work we wanted to do without worrying about the budget – what would we do? What if we had the capacity to try new things and do our work … [Read more...]
How to Run a Great Workshop — Whatever the Conditions
In August, I traveled to Baltimore to give a workshop at the fourth Money for Our Movements conference sponsored by GIFT, the Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training. The conference brought together 650 organizers and activists from across North America who work for social, racial, and economic justice. My session was in a hot, … [Read more...]
Boards and Fundraising: Three Tasks Everyone Can Do
If you ask fundraising professionals to describe their deepest and most enduring fantasy, the answer would sound something like this: “Give me a wealthy board filled with wealthy people who will ask their wealthy friends for money.” Sure, those boards exist, but they are very, very rare. Unless you work with a legacy institution – a … [Read more...]
Train Your Staff to Raise Money
Years ago, I was hired to lead an all-staff fundraising workshop for a mid-sized nonprofit. When I walked into the training room, about a dozen people were waiting for me: arms crossed, eyes down, sideways smirks. This was a “mandatory training opportunity” for program staff. None of them had the words “fundraising” or “development” … [Read more...]
Turn Your Board into a “Place of We”
Is it hard to get your board members excited about raising money? Our friend Judy Levine of Cause Effective just wrote a terrific piece about the possibility of board members training board members. She delights in the idea that boards can use our new Train Your Board book to train themselves – without a consultant, professional … [Read more...]
Find the Courage to Train Your Board: 6 Simple Tips
How do you cultivate courage...specifically the courage to try new things, like training our boards to raise more money? Our colleague Beth Raps, who was kind enough to review an early draft of our book, recently asked us that question. Like Fundraisers, Trainers Need Courage If you listed the attributes of successful fundraisers, … [Read more...]
Become a Great Trainer: Use a Flip Chart instead of PowerPoint
David outsmarts Goliath: Why flip charts beat PowerPoint Lately I’ve been leading a lot of “Train Your Board” workshops based on our new book. I often start by asking, “Raise your hand if you’ve ever attended a bad class, a bad workshop, or a bad seminar?” Hands fly into the air. Everybody laughs, because we’ve all been … [Read more...]
You Don’t Need Trainer Machismo to be a Great Fundraising Trainer
I spend a lot of time on the road, leading workshops. I often work alone -- it’s a one-person business. But over the years I’ve built a pretty diverse network of professional peers: trainers, consultants, facilitators, and practitioners of “nonprofit therapy.” This network has been crucial to my success, self-confidence, stamina, … [Read more...]
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