Financing & Loans

When hikers get together, many of them talk about their boots. When chefs gather, they swap recipes. What do grant proposal professionals do? Many of us talk about the proposal-generating work environments at our nonprofits. What Good Companies Have in Common: Grant proposal professionals can learn how to create good work environments by looking at …

A participant on a listserve raised the question: “What skills or personal qualities make one competent to ‘make the ask’ when meeting with a) an individual and b) a corporate representative?” Because I have some very strong feelings/opinions about the issue and didn’t want to be angered/frustrated/annoyed by that discussion, I didn’t read the rest …

My two previous postings included the nuts and bolts of preparing financials for grant proposals to private and corporate foundations. This post will focus solely on a significant issue facing NPO’s seeking grant funding: namely that many foundations don’t provide general operating support. Instead, they prefer to fund specific programs or projects, and often something …

I take the strong and unwavering position that members of the board of trustees and other volunteers are the people who must raise all or most of the money for a non-profit organization. These days far too many boards and eager-to-please development professionals are starting down the slippery slope of relying on staff to be …

CFC Special Events & Resources In my July 11th post I talked about what a “culture of philanthropy” is, and the value of establishing one in your non-profit. The point is that CFC workplace giving campaigns provide many opportunities that smart non-profits can use as a “practice field” for many aspects of professional development, including …

Unlike all of the other planned giving mechanisms, a bequest program doesn’t require major technical expertise and specific financial instruments. It’s easy, it’s fast, it can pay off substantially, and the dollars from bequests comprise close to 90% of all planned gifts. Many non-profit organizations refuse to get into planned giving because of the perception …

I’m taking a hiatus from bequests to help you get IRA gifts for your year-end appeal. Passed on January 1, 2013, the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 renewed charitable giving from individual retirement accounts (IRAs) for those 70-and-a-half or older. This gift opportunity ends on December 31 so the remaining months of the year …