How big is your marketing budget? Let me guess: Not big enough. Many grassroots nonprofits struggle with marketing. They want a big brand, but have little time or money to invest. Sadly, many of these groups ignore the best tool in the marketing toolbox – and it’s free. Word of mouth! While your marketing options have expanded … [Read more...]
Making Decisions? A Simple Facilitation Tool
A few years ago, I sat down with my colleagues Nancy Wasserman and Stephanie Lahar to discuss ways to work together more intentionally. We’re friends, we’re consultants with different (but complementary) expertise, and we all run our own one-person businesses. Nancy suggested a very basic exercise. She wrote three columns on a flip … [Read more...]
When Recruiting Board Members, Look for a Willingness to Learn
Note: This is a guest post from our colleague Kim Klein, a terrific author, fundraising trainer, and mentor to many, many grassroots fundraisers. Thanks Kim! Early in my consulting practice, I had the opportunity to work with the boards of three very different organizations. A well-established theater company A welfare rights … [Read more...]
Ask Your Board: How High Will You Go?
Note: This guest post is from our colleague Amy Eisenstein, one of the country’s leading fundraising consultants and trainers. Thanks Amy! Your board members are essential for successful fundraising, especially when it comes to major gift fundraising. Unfortunately, fundraising doesn’t come naturally to most board members, which means … [Read more...]
Talkers, non-talkers, and disrupters: How to effectively engage your group
If you’ve ever chaired a meeting, taught a class, organized people to accomplish a specific task, or facilitated anything, you’ve undoubtedly encountered these challenges. People who talk too much People who are uncomfortable talking in groups or simply choose not to speak People who disrupt the process and require a lot of … [Read more...]
Want a productive meeting? Create a great agenda
Many board members confuse going to meetings with fulfilling their duties. Alas, attending meetings barely qualifies as work – especially when you consider the typical agenda. A report, a few questions, another report, another question or two, a digression, a discussion about which color to paint the office, and an argument about the … [Read more...]
The most fun way to end a workshop…?
If you’re looking for a fun way to wrap up your next training, here’s a great option from MaryKay O’Donnell, a friend and colleague from the Land Trust Alliance, who learned it from Georgia Peterson at Michigan State University. This exercise engages your participants, gets everyone moving, and reinforces the most important lessons of … [Read more...]
Gnarly Questions (and Answers) About Board Training – Part 2
Last week we ran the first part of Andy’s Q&A with consultant Mazarine Treyz, who posed several challenging questions about building and training effective boards. This week, we’re sharing the rest of their conversation. Enjoy! Finding great board members Mazarine: How can you find good board members? What’s a way to get the BEST … [Read more...]
Gnarly Questions (and Answers) About Board Training – Part 1
Andy recently sat down with Mazarine Treyz, a terrific colleague based in Portland, Oregon. Mazarine asked tough questions about training boards. Andy did his best to answer them. Thanks to Mazarine for sharing this Q&A on her blog. Here’s your chance to eavesdrop on their conversation. The biggest mistake – and how to avoid it … [Read more...]
A Simple but Powerful Lesson for Your Next Workshop
Last month in Chicago, I gave a keynote address to group of several hundred people. You can imagine the scene: stage, bright lights, multiple video screens. Because the speaker was the focus of the event, setting up exercises was a bit more challenging. However, I tried to weave in some activities, because sitting and listening is … [Read more...]
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