By Project Manager, Heather Thornton Recently, my teenage cousin came for a short visit. She is an amazing kid – smart, funny, engaging…so much so that I sometimes forget I am dealing with a 15-year old and not an older, more mature person. I would say that she represents a fairly typical Gen Zer, those […]

“I’d like to buy the world a home and furnish it with love…I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony…” I was reminded of those lines from a 1971 Coca-Cola ad as I read an article in Planned Giving Today  about ‘Leave A Legacy.’  Now, I know I’m showing my age with […]

Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, WordPress, YouTube, Tumblr… the list goes on. Social media is taking over the internet and how we communicate with one another.  If your organization doesn’t have a social media presence you might as well live in the Stone Age. But what does your social media platform do for your giving? It […]

A previous blog offered suggestions on how to aggravate your board in four easy steps. Following up on that post, I’ve received suggestions on how to not only tick off your board chair but your campaign chair as well. Some of these came from chairs that we have worked with throughout the years. It brought […]

The website Inside Philanthropy had a provocative blog recently from a nonprofit management consultant named Alan Cantor. Cantor argues that the triple-digit growth in donor advised funds (DAFs in the lingo of the field) is actually hurting charities. Simply put, a DAF is a charitable fund that an individual donor can establish at an investment […]

By Mark Belcher, Partner I’m sure you read the title and thought to yourself, “That’s all I do!” In today’s environment of increasing competition for funding, I’ve been thinking about the constituency beyond Alumni, donors, foundations and corporations and would encourage you to do the same. Many times we leave important dollars on the table […]

By Katie MacKenzie, Project Coordinator Crowdfunding. Every week on my various social media feeds, I see at least one or two Kickstarter, GoFundMe, or Indiegogo-type pleas for fundraising support.  Some of the causes are noble – supporting a medical mission trip to Haiti, assisting underserved students in need of new classroom supplies – while others […]

BoardSource, the go-to resource for all things related to good board service and governance, this month released its annual “National Index of Nonprofit Board Practices.” BoardSource has been collecting and analyzing trends in board practices since 1994 and it is the only national survey to gather information from both chief executives and board chairs regarding […]