In last week’s blog post, a board member talked about his expectations and role within a board. He shared his thoughts during a panel discussion that Keith and I led as part of a workshop for the Virginia Association of Museum’s Annual Conference. Friends and clients, Page Hayhurst, Executive Director, Carolyn Cuthrell, Director of Development, and Joe Witt,… Read more »
The Curtis Group is pleased to introduce our two new team members, Lauren Fenn and Natalie McGaughey. Lauren, joins us from the development office at Tidewater Community College Educational Foundation. As our new campaign and communications manager she will focus on campaign management, client communications, and marketing the firm. Natalie, a recent graduate of Roanoke College, focused… Read more »
Earlier this week Keith and I led a workshop during the Virginia Association of Museum’s Annual Conference. As part of our session, entitled Making a Successful Major Gift Ask, we recruited our friends and clients, Page Hayhurst, Executive Director, Carolyn Cuthrell, Director of Development, and Joe Witt, Board Member, from the Virginia Living Museum to… Read more »
While in Chicago, I attended a presentation on the role of community foundations in today’s giving environment. Jason Baxendale, director of gift planning for The Chicago Community Trust, and Terry Shavone, The Columbus Foundation’s vice president for donor services and development (both of which are ranked in the top 10 largest community foundations in the… Read more »
Recently, I conducted a training session at a nonprofit’s board planning retreat. This training was so much fun for me because the board was ready to transition from special events and membership fundraising to a major gift, fundraising-focused program. We talked a lot about culture change as their organization has been using their current model for… Read more »
At the Volunteer Hampton Roads conference last Friday, we heard a speaker talking about giving as an investment. If you’ve heard us speak about major gift fundraising, you’ve heard us say that donors, now more than ever, view their major gifts as investments. That means that we, as development professionals and board members, need to be prepared… Read more »
In a year-end fundraising survey, The Chronicle of Philanthropy found that 62 percent of nonprofits reported raising more last November and December than in the same period for 2009. An article on the results, published this week, also said that nearly two-thirds of the 245 nonprofits surveyed had an overall gain in donations in 2010,… Read more »
Last week Wendy and I taught a two-day Development and Fundraising course at Tidewater Community College’s Academy for Nonprofit Excellence. On the second day, Kay Stine of Norfolk Collegiate School, Billy Foster of TowneBank, and Christine Morris of Hampton Roads Community Foundation served on a panel that addressed issues surrounding major gift asks. All of… Read more »
An article last week in The Chronicle of Philanthropy and a recent news report on PBS both indicate that a growing number of Americans are supporting charities through online giving and social media. In the Chroncle article, the fundraising software company Convio said that online donations to its 1, 300 clients topped $1.3 billion in… Read more »
The headline says it all: “Year-End Giving Season Is Bountiful for Charities That Rely on the Wealthy.” Not only is this encouraging news for nonprofits, it’s validating for us. Over our 22-year history, we’ve stressed the incomparable value of high-net-worth donors, and we’ve hit that message even harder during the economic downturn because we know they’re… Read more »
