Fundraising Leadership ™

Executive Coaching, Professional Development, Training, and Career Advancement for Nonprofit Leaders in the United States, Canada, and Europe.

Creating a Better World – Social Change Philanthropy

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“I want to create a better world, not just better conditions in the same world.“
Rosemary Oliver

For years, I used the story of people floating in a river, unable to reach the shore, to describe the difference between social change organizations and more traditional charities.

In case you’re not familiar with it, it goes like this:

A passerby saw a person floating down the river, jumped in and saved him. Day after day, more people were found floating in the river, unable to reach the shore. The community organized, set up teams to watch for and save the floating people. Eventually, someone asked why they were showing up in the river in the first place. She headed upstream to see why these folks were ending up in the water and to determine how to help prevent it from happening. [Read more…]

Creating an Environment for Fundraising to Thrive

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Too often in charitable organizations, fundraising is seen as distinct from delivering on mission.

Yet fundraising cuts horizontally across an organization, touching virtually every aspect of its work. And, in order to raise money effectively, you can’t simply work hard at fundraising, you must also work hard at creating the right environment – the enabling ecology – for fundraising to thrive.

Fundraising’s enabling ecology approach suggests that the sustainability of your fundraising program depends on the strength, interconnectedness and balance of each of the approach’s four elements: strategies, infrastructure, culture and principles. And you must purposefully plan for each if you want to have the full involvement of your organization and ultimately raise more money. [Read more…]