Last week I led a class for the Board Development Academy hosted by the Center for Nonprofit Excellence in Charlottesville, VA. The Board Development Academy is for engaged community leaders, people either early on in their board careers or those who have never been on a board, who want to learn how to effectively serve… Read more »
Nonprofits and Their Boards: An Evolving Relationship
A recent article in The Chronicle of Philanthropy by Maureen West titled “Charities Find Ways to Give Board Members Bigger Roles in Policy” caught our attention. So much of the work we have done with our clients for the past 23 years is meeting with the board members of nonprofits to discuss fundraising strategy and… Read more »
Make the Most of Your Data
Last week we participated in a webinar on donor databases titled “Data Data Everywhere. Mining for Gold in your Donor Database.” This hour-long discussion was conducted by Fundraising Success magazine and featured three presenters: Amanda Mallinger Reinartz, Manager Product Development, Metafile; Jodi Scheib, Vice President, Fundraising, DMW Direct; and Joe Hamilton, Director of Development, Franciscan Friars…. Read more »
Building Excellence Grantees Reflect on Development Successes and Challenges
Earlier this week, The Hampton Roads Community Foundation gathered past grantees of its Building Excellence program to share ideas and discuss development challenges. The gathering not only produced very interesting conversation but some great ideas that we thought we’d share. Board engagement was a reoccurring theme that presented itself over the course of the lunch…. Read more »
Building a Strong Board: Tips From a Seasoned Veteran
Last week we attended the first of the 2012 AFP-Hampton Roads luncheon series. Susan Hirschbiel, philanthropist, community volunteer, and recipient of the National Philanthropy Day 2011 Outstanding Volunteer Fundraiser, spoke on the topic of building a strong board. It’s not often that nonprofit professionals have the opportunity to hear about board service from an actual board… Read more »
Giving USA Spotlight: Relationship Cultivation Using Social Media
As most nonprofits are wrapping up the final week of their annual giving campaign and gearing up for the New Year, we wanted to share some valuable information from the latest edition of the 2011 Giving USA Spotlight series. The third and final issue of the year, entitled, “Relationship Cultivation Using Social Media” offers good… Read more »
Donor Awareness of Telemarketing
Because promoting philanthropy is our life’s work, we felt the need to comment on a series of articles, as well as an editorial that ran in our local newspaper, The Virginian-Pilot, over the past several days on “professional fundraising companies” (i.e., telemarketing firms and professional solicitors, who differ greatly from professional fundraising counsel like The Curtis Group)…. Read more »
Rethinking Your Annual Giving Approach
Last week Wendy and I attended an interesting presentation on annual giving at our Hampton Roads AFP chapter meeting. Kim Sperling, Director of Development at the Mason School of Business at William and Mary, revealed “Ten Truths and a Myth about Annual Giving,” which reiterated much of the advice we’ve been giving recently around the… Read more »
A Name Heard Around the Nation
Here’s another story in our occasional series on how a handful of volunteers can have a huge impact on their community. In 1978, Rev. Edward Page, a young minister at Suffolk Presbyterian Church, was diagnosed with an incurable brain tumor. That same year, Marcus Hogge, a child in Rev. Page’s congregation, was dying from a… Read more »
A Moving Celebration of Philanthropy
This year I’ve served as president of the Hampton Roads chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. In that role I had the honor of presenting the awards at Tuesday’s National Philanthropy Day Luncheon to the people and organizations whose philanthropic work is among the most outstanding in Hampton Roads. More than 300 people attended… Read more »
