Tag: staff support and development

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A Lesser-Known View of Wellness

By Michael Taylor, CFRE, CEO Wellness usually focuses on your personal responsibility to stay healthy. There’s a bit of “blame the victim” syndrome in that. I have a different view. You see, my 25 years of fundraising leadership has shown me that 10 key organizational development touchpoints do more to keep you healthy and well than almost anything else! I talked about these 10 touchpoints on a recent webinar, which you can watch at this link. My view is that if you have agreement on these issues, then you have less stress. And when you’re feeling less stress, you can raise

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Five Ways to Make the Case for Advancement Operations

By Josh Birkholz How do you make the case for non-frontline roles? Leaders are more likely to interact and prioritize the frontline officers, but a balance must be met to maximize ROI. Here are five ways to make the case for organizational support staff. Making the case for program investment and seeing the resulting growth in giving may be among my favorite roles as a fundraising consultant these past 17 years. I can speak confidently because the data is sound. I can speak with credibility because I am not asking for my own resources, rather making the case for somebody

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The Value of a Fundraiser

By Roger Craver Almost every sector of the economy is now facing the issue of how many employees will actually return vs. how many will simply opt for greener pastures. If the financial meltdown of 2008 was the Great Recession, will post-pandemic 2021 turn out to be the Great Resignation? Virtually every part of the nonprofit sector – from higher ed, to healthcare, to advocacy and social benefit organizations – have historically been notoriously irresponsible when it comes to training, onboarding, promoting  and holding on to fundraisers. The result of this neglect on the part of boards, CEOs and even the

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Six Provocative Interview Questions When Hiring Fundraisers

Hiring fundraisers can be challenging. Just ask any Executive Director or CEO. Fundraisers tend to move jobs often and most fell into fundraising without studying it as a career, making…

Understanding these trends is essential for you to adapt your strategies and identify areas for improvement. If you’d like my feedback on your adapted annual fundraising plan, send it to me here.

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Understanding Your Fundraiser

Understanding Your Fundraiser

By: Michael Taylor, CFRE, CEO There is a “magic sauce” in fundraising that is neither secret nor arcane. It all has to do with the relationship between the fundraiser and the nonprofit. When the relationship is close, trusting, and mutually supportive, more money will be raised. Momentum will build. Fundraising goals will be met. If the relationship is distant, strained, and contrary, the engagement won’t work. Little will be accomplished. Revenue goals will not be met. Do you understand your fundraiser? It’s common sense, really; but not as prevalent as it could be. Fundraising begins (or should begin) with an

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Development Staff Supervision & Donor Data Reports A Magic Link

Development Staff Supervision & Donor Data Reports: A Magic Link

By: Michael Taylor, CFRE, CEO Your donor data-base reports are a magic link to effective supervision of your development staff and raising more revenue. These reports tell you about your new donor acquisition rates, and retention, loss, and upgrade rates, all of which are at the heart of top fundraising performance. Yet many development staffers do not use the macro reports built into their donor software, nor do they know what the reports mean. A talented development director would be wise to learn the donor base reporting functions from the vendor who sold the system, and then help the development

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The Role of the Development Committee Chair

The Role of the Development Committee Chair

Your fundraising team has many important players, but none as significant as the unsung Development Chair. Yes, the CEO, in-house fundraising staff, paid consultants, board members, and volunteers will all be members of the team too, but a good Development Chair is worth their weight in gold.

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