Financing & Loans

(The following is an email exchange….) I recently took over as President of the Xyz Dance Company. It is a very unorganized, 501(c)(3) volunteer (parents of dancers) organization. I have recommended to the group we seek professional assistance to get “organized” with a development plan, create proper manuals to help keep us on track, and …

There are about ten things your non-profit must do now in order to have a Tips for CFC successful campaign this fall – CFC campaigns run from Sept. 1 to Dec. 15 each year. I don’t have room to cover all ten in this post, but here are three of the most important, with the …

This is an update/revision of a posting that appeared in October, 2010 In my 30+ years as a fundraising consultant, I’ve seen corporate fundraising done by staff and/or volunteers, with a consultant advising/teaching/guiding; and, I’ve seen a “consultant” doing the fundraising from the corporations on behalf of the NPO. In both cases, it always created …

Don’t forget your proposal graphics! They can be, and usually are, important elements of persuasion. But too many grant proposals have poor graphics, too few graphics, or none at all. Graphics are Important Graphics are far more than entertaining diversions. We know, from considerable research on the subject, that good proposal graphics (appropriately integrated with …

The following, provoked by questions to this blog, is a revision of a posting from April, 2010. Development is the process of creating and enhancing relationships with (potential) donors … hopefully leading to the solicitation/acquisition of (contributed) income. “Development” directly references the relationship between the donor and the nonprofit, and how that relationship satisfies the …

My previous posts provided a lot of introductory information on foundation and corporate grants, organizational readiness, grant management, and … on Step One of the four-step grantsmanship process: Prospecting For Foundation Funding. I begin, now, to addresses the second step in the process: Grant Cultivation. For those familiar with non-profit fundraising, grant cultivation is very …

(A Pair of Postings from two of this blog’s regular contributors) Fund-Raisers are not Friend-Raisers by Tony Poderis. I have always held that special event fund-raisers must/should be just that, fund-raisers, not friend-raisers. There may be exceptions, but we cannot count on the exception for successful fund-raising. To my way of thinking, it is poor …