Fundraising Leadership ™

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

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…]

Strengthen Your Team During Crisis

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Two months ago, I was on my way to a reunion weekend at New College of Florida in Sarasota. I am currently on the college’s foundation board, and a trip to Sarasota was long overdue. I made the reunion a quarterly goal. Perfect timing! As the director of programs and research at HERS, we were in between the February and March delivery of the HERS Leadership Institute, our signature leadership program for women leaders in higher education. My team was moving forward as planned. It was the right time for my vacation. Furthermore, I needed time away. Well being, particularly self-care, is essential as a team leader. I was glad to take the time off and committed to not working. In the past, my team felt that I wasn’t sincere when I would encourage them to truly leave the work during their vacations, because they knew I never did. I was determined to be a good example. [Read more…]

Emotional Intelligence – Giving Yourself a Break

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Right about now, you might be very angry about all that’s going on with the Coronavirus situation. Especially if you watch any of the cable news reporting.

I confess. I can be an angry elf! Like the one in the film Elf. More on that later.

In the book, the 15 Commitments of Conscious Leaders, Commitment #3 (summarized) is: “I commit to feeling my feelings through to completion. They come, and I locate them in my body, then move, breathe, and vocalize them, so they release all the way.” It’s a topic that Conscious Leaders come back to time and time again because they practice emotional intelligence.

[Read more…]

Is Your Money Story Affecting Your Ask?

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Spoiler alert: I strongly believe that the answer to the question in the title is YES.  And not only that, but there’s a decent chance the impact your money story is having isn’t pretty.

So, what is a money story, exactly?

Most of us learn “stories” about money from the Big Three Influencers: our families, our communities and our churches (and other religions). Sometimes the messages are lovely, about sharing and abundance and villages raising children.  MUCH more often, people are taught that money is scarce, that it must be earned with sweat, that it is infused with power, that it is linked to greed and evil. They learn that money is something others have more of, and that it creates imbalance. They learn that there isn’t enough.  They learn that it comes with strings attached.  They learn that asking for it is bad. [Read more…]

Put on Your Cape and Let’s Get Going! Embracing Vulnerability in Fundraising.

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Vulnerability is a big word. It has twelve letters and many connotations, depending with whom you speak. It’s also a word I used to fear. Being vulnerable meant leaving myself open and unprotected, travelling into unknown territory. Quite frankly, it was my least favorite state of being.

Philanthropy is also a big, twelve-letter word that means something different depending with whom you are speaking. Unlike vulnerability, philanthropy has been a word I’ve confidently lived with for the past 30 years. Despite the constant “I just don’t know how you ask people for money” comments from faculty and friends, philanthropy is my happy place.   [Read more…]

Fair Winds and Following Seas: Lessons from Canadian Leaders at Sea

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Krista Slade at CLaS

Standing in the midst of the hipster hiking adventure store, I felt like a total fraud.  Not exactly adverse to shopping – as friends will attest – purchasing serious rainproof gear was novel for me.  But it was necessary as I was prepping to depart on an Arctic adventure with the Royal Canadian Navy as part of the ‘Canadian Leaders at Sea’ (CLaS) program.

I am not by nature a thrill-seeker.  I have huge respect for my friends who train for marathons or hike the Camino de Santiago but my idea of adventure runs more to wearing Fluevog shoes.  Yet I found myself in August 2019 signed up to sail from Iqaluit on Baffin Island (known in Inuktitut as ᕿᑭᖅᑖᓗᒃ/Qikiqtaalukto) to St John’s, Newfoundland aboard Canadian frigate HMCS Ville de Québec.  My shipmates for the five days would include 200+ sailors and officers plus 14 fellow ClaSmates who had been selected for this innovative experiential learning program. [Read more…]

So You Want to Retire One Day, Right?

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Development salaries are not great but are getting better. The Association of Fundraising Professionals 2019 salary survey showed the average salary is about $84,000, and that’s a 7.7 percent improvement! The median—“most middle”—salary is $72,500. What are the proven methods to reach financial independence on a relatively modest salary?

Coming from a missionary family, I was shocked at the age of 16 to read a letter from my parents’ mission board that read, “Dear Missionaries, Due to adverse economic conditions, the funds in your retirement account are depleted.” That’s it. Good luck. I vowed that was never going to happen to me, and I spent most of my life working with missionaries, clergy, social workers and teachers who are ridiculously underpaid attain a dignified retirement. [Read more…]

Sleeping Your Way to the Top (Leaders Need Sleep)

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If you want to be your best – in literally anything – optimizing your sleep is your number one performance enhancer.   Leaders need sleep!  There is not one major organ within the body, or process within the brain, that isn’t enhanced by sleep (or impaired when you don’t get enough). Sleep makes you live longer. It enhances your memory and makes you more creative. It makes you look more attractive. It keeps you slim and lowers food cravings. Sleep improves both cognitive and motor learning. It protects you from cancer and dementia. It wards off colds and the flu. It lowers your risk of heart attacks, stroke, and diabetes. You’ll feel happier, less depressed, and less anxious. In athletes, sleep improves physical performance and reduces the risk of injury.

These conclusions come from over 17,000 carefully examined scientific reports to date. I highlight some of the most interesting and useful facts for leaders in the sections below. [Read more…]

Managing to Retain Fundraisers

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In the marketplace for fundraiser talent, demand currently outstrips supply.  There are currently thousands of job postings for fundraisers listed at the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), The Chronicle of Philanthropy, The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), and LinkedIn.

In the face of this demand, advancement and development leaders often say that one of the most significant challenges they face is managing to retain fundraisers. While the economic forces of supply and demand are putting upward pressure on salaries, a common misconception about fundraiser retention is that it’s “all about the money.” That’s a management and leadership cop-out, and the situation is dire. According to a recent Association of Fundraising Professionals’ (AFP) report, half (50%) of fundraisers surveyed reported that they intend to leave their jobs in the next 2 years. [Read more…]

Refocus for 2020

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As the year 2020 approaches, it is such a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the past year’s successes, what we learned and what we want to create in the year ahead. It’s so easy to just let life take us down the river and to end up in a place where we don’t want to be. Creating a system to check in with your team to make sure you are heading in the right direction is important. And it can be a fun and creative process that you all look forward to each year. [Read more…]