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Should I Stay or Should I Go?
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Fundraising is a career in which people can change jobs frequently; and, usually, it is not held against them. Years ago, when I began my professional career, it was not uncommon to meet people who had been with the same organization and sometimes, even in the same position, for their entire careers.
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Contributed by:
Shelley Uva
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Waiting for Super Donor? What Your Board Needs to Know About Individual Donations
Wednesday, June 08, 2011
Every nonprofit organization hopes someone will make a significant donation that rescues them from their financial challenges. Do you wait for Super Donor to rescue you? Unfortunately, if you only wait and hope, the odds are that Super Donor is not coming. Nor is he or she sending a check. This article shares what every board member needs to know and do to obtain individual donations.
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Contributed by:
Karen Eber Davis
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Five Mid-Year Resolutions for Your Grant Development Department
Wednesday, June 01, 2011
As we approach mid-year, it is time to ask ourselves a question. Are we doing all we can to have a better fund raising year? The year 2011 might offer the same for nonprofits as 2010. Of course, it could offer more funding possibilities. Whatever the changes are in store for the funding community, to be as successful as you can be you will need a specific, measurable strategy that is divided into manageable pieces.
Let’s start now to look at five opportunities each month for the rest of the year to advance your development efforts and to achieve organizational goals this year!
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Contributed by:
Jeannette Archer-Simons
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Taming the Green-Eyed Monster
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
The grant proposal you worked on with Department A has just been awarded a contract! The program director is thrilled and shakes your hand. The CEO happily announces it in the all-staff meeting. High fives go all around. Then, the director of Department B comes up to you. “So, how come we never get these grants?” Uh oh – that green-eyed monster called jealousy has reared its ugly head.
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Contributed by:
Teri Blandon
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Engaging the Board
Thursday, May 19, 2011
One of the challenges that nonprofit leaders and fund development professionals face is how to engage the board in meaningful and productive work on behalf of the organization. Engaging the board can be achieved in four basic steps....
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Contributed by:
Jeannette Archer-Simons
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So You Have a New Logo. Now what?
Saturday, May 14, 2011
In addition to serving as the key identifying mark, your organization’s logo can tell people a lot about your organization, its values and philosophy. And if your logo looks outdated, unprofessional, or otherwise no longer represents your organization accurately, it can be time to change it....Here are some of the key steps to effectively start using your new logo....
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Contributed by:
Howard Levy
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Should You Share Your Grant Proposals?
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Recently, a colleague inquired as to the appropriateness of sharing complete copies of successfully-funded grant proposals with others via the Internet. The inquiring colleague was interested in what policies others in the grant field had developed for their institutions. ...I cautioned her that....
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Contributed by:
Rebecca Shawver
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Creating a General Grant Proposal Template
Wednesday, May 04, 2011
As grant writers, it would be quite inefficient if we started from scratch every time we developed a new proposal. Creating a general template for each program that you’ll be applying for saves both time and resources.
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Contributed by:
Alyssa Hanada
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Who Is Your Nonprofit?
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
If you have written many proposals for a particular nonprofit, the organizational description section can be one of the most tedious to write. Yet, the importance of this critical section is often overlooked when focusing on other sections such as the program description or the budget.
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Contributed by:
Teri Blandon
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Professional Development – Invest in Yourself
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Often you are so busy investing your time and energy in your agency and writing grants for their needs that you are forgotten. Your agency needs you operating at 100%....and right now, they need you at 100% all the time. We all know what happens when we are operating at 90%. That’s the time when your proposals are denied funding because you forgot a signature or you missed the deadline because it was 5:00 p.m. EST not PST. Or the ultimate embarrassment occurs – you had another funder’s name in the narrative that you cut and pasted.
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Contributed by:
Becky Day-Swain
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Three Must-Do's for Getting More Grant Writing Clients
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
You want them lined up at your door just waiting to do business with you. But one of the most common challenges that new grant writing consultants face is finding clients. Fortunately, one of the greatest perks (and there are lots!) about being a grant writing consultant is the ability to work with clients locally. You can work with them virtually or in-person – meaning that there is actually a huge client pool to choose from. With more than one and a half million nonprofits in the U.S. alone, you are guaranteed business – if you know how to gain access to them.
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Contributed by:
Betsy Baker
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What Does Your Grant Proposal Say About You?
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
I have a confession to make. As the daughter of a middle school English teacher, I had a bad habit of dozing off during middle and high school English classes. For the longest time, the rules of grammar came easy to me. Perhaps I learned them through osmosis? Was it part of my genetic makeup thanks to my mother? While others were struggling, I knew I could write papers quickly. On a regular basis, I could write a term paper in one night, turn it in with very little editing, and get a good grade.
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Contributed by:
Shelley O'Brien
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Can You Make Money with Your Mission? What a Board Member Needs to Know
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
In this post-recession world, nonprofits continue to seek ways to increase the money to create their missions. One option is to expand earned income or mission income, that is, income earned while doing mission. In this climate nonprofits that never considered mission income are reexamining opportunities. Others who dabbled in mission income now place it front and center. As a board member, here are ten fundamentals to consider as you explore mission income opportunities for your nonprofit.
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Contributed by:
Karen Eber Davis
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What I Learned as a Reviewer for a Federal Agency - Part 2
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Apparently, whatever an applicant writes in their budget and its correlating narrative is of no real consequence to the review process. As a reviewer, I was told that since all budgets are reviewed and ultimately approved by a program officer, budgets are given very little if any attention in the review process. We were instructed to award full points to the budget section except in very extreme cases. This remains quite dismaying to me....
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Contributed by:
Rebecca Shawver
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