Finance

11 Best Small Business Insurance Companies for 2026
That was the subject line in a recent email in which the writer asked: “We have a skilled fundraiser who wants to do an event for us. She is willing to do it for 10% of profits after expenses. She is passionate about our cause and has worked hard for us for a couple of …
Forming an LLC is a smart move to shield your personal assets from business liabilities, but that protection only holds if you keep your finances separate. One of the first and most important steps? Opening a dedicated business bank account. The choices you make early on can have a lasting impact on your business, and …
Tennessee’s vibrant mix of urban centers like Nashville and Memphis, historic small towns, and scenic rural communities means residents need banking solutions as diverse as their lifestyles. Whether you’re a music industry professional, a college student in Knoxville, a retiree in the Smoky Mountains, or a small business owner in Chattanooga, your bank should offer …

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Raising money from wealthy people is not the same as asking buddies at work to kick in a few bucks or selling cookies. The size of the gifts expected in those cases is rather small and not a lot of cultivation goes into the process. People who are major gift prospects have (more than likely) …
Too many people (NPO board members, volunteers and staff) believe that “Evaluation” means determining what a potential donor should give!! That couldn’t be more wrong. A formal evaluation process has two objectives: to identify a dollar amount that the prospective donor would be likely to be able to afford; and, to identify a (realistic) dollar …
Building an Effective Grant Proposal: Part One So, you’ve completed your research and are ready to start writing!! The question, now, is how do you go about structuring your grant proposal? For those circumstances where the funder provides specific guidelines, there’s only one rule worth remembering: “Follow those guidelines to the letter.” But what about …
“Hank,” the email said, “can you send me a gift pyramid that my organization can use in preparing for a capital campaign.” My response leaned somewhat toward the academic…. Gift Tables and Pyramids are great fundraising tools, but their construction and usage are often very much misunderstood. They are most often associated with capital campaigns, …
There are two categories of donor cultivation: the education about and the involvement in the programs/activities of the NPO … leading up to the solicitation and obtaining of the first major gift from non-donors; and, the ongoing education, involvement and recognition of prior donors leading up to their next major gift. But, before you can …
Many nonprofit organizations boast lists of honorary trustees, board members, and/or directors. And the vast majority of those named individuals are “there” in name only. The question that must be asked is how does that benefit the NPO. There are two basic reasons why a person gets the “honorary” title. S/he may have been of …
In the nonprofit sector there are two types of “Advisory” groups: those that advise, and those that don’t. In my experience, Advisory Boards are created for just about any reason you can think of; but very often – in the non-profit sector, the term is a euphemism for a group of major donors who have …