Fundraising Leadership ™

Executive Coaching, Leadership Training, and Personal Development

What Did You Appreciate in 2016?

by

For many fundraisers the month of December can be a time to appreciate others. Making thank you calls to donors. Writing messages on the stacks of holiday cards being sent to donors, board members and volunteers. Spending time with colleagues during holiday parties and potlucks.

Since it is often a busy time of year – both professionally and personally – you might suddenly find yourself facing the New Year and thinking about those resolutions. Or just wondering where the year has gone.
[Read more…]

The Five Leadership Lessons of FDR (and my Father)

by

This week I’m dealing with my father transitioning to an assisted living facility after 10+ years of enduring the aftermath of lymphoma, heart disease, and stroke. We humorously refer to him as the “triple threat.”

Like Frankin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), my father is now mostly confined to a wheelchair. His metaphorical physical wings got clipped some time ago. But not his spiritual wings. Those continue to help him soar.
[Read more…]

Mindful Leadership–A Pathway to Increased Wisdom, Compassion, and Courage

by

In his excellent course The Science of Mindfulness, Professor Ron Siegel from the Harvard Medical School lays out the modern scientific evidence for the benefits of meditation practice–one of the pathways toward mindfulness.

It is becoming clearer through cutting edge research that mindfulness (or the awareness of present experience) which has been practiced for over 2,500 years is a reliable pathway to increased wisdom, compassion, and courage–qualities possessed by great leaders and organizations.
[Read more…]

Fundraising Success–Belief is Key

by

I’m fond of Napolean Hill’s expression: “Whatsoever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” It comes back to me time and time again, especially when it seems as if progress is difficult.

I’ll admit that up until recently embracing this axiom was difficult. Then I recently read an excellent book by Claude Bristol entitled The Magic of Believing. It helped me recall several episodes during my life where I held an intention to be, do, have, or accomplish something without being attached to any particular way it manifested.
[Read more…]

Leadership, Honor, and Integrity

by

Sidney Mathias Baxter Coulling III, the retired S. Blount Mason Jr. Professor of English at Washington and Lee University died in February at the age of 92. I had the distinct privilege of being taught Old English Literature and Poetry by Professor Coulling in 1981 as a freshman at W&L. It was the toughest “C” I ever earned (one of only two as an undergraduate). How I made my way into a sophomore level course (also taken by many juniors) is a testament to my naiveté–an error that only a greenhorn freshman can make.
[Read more…]