Last month I focused on IRA gifts, now I’m back to bequests, picking up from August with strategies other than direct mail to promote bequest giving. (See Tony’s previous posts on Planned Giving.) If you haven’t got the budget for direct mail, these are for you! If you’re using direct mail, augment it with these …

Still don’t think crisis management should be a priority? We all know that crises can create financial damage, but do you really understand how much damage? The stats below, quoted from a BusinessInsurance.com article, may surprise you: Natural catastrophes and man-made disasters caused insured losses of $20 billion in the first half of 2013, with …

In a recent program on conflict resolution for the marketing department of a health care company, I asked the following. Can you describe the conflicts that occur most often? What could be possible reasons for these disagreements? How these conflicts are usually resolved? Or they keep coming back? As you would expect, this generated a …

You are at a meeting to help set up a project plan for a new undertaking. You have been asked to estimate the time needed for your documentation role in this particular project. How will you know how long it will take to complete the writing project? You could have researched before the meeting and …

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 …

You want your work to be more meaningful. You long for work that serves a higher purpose. You feel a disconnection between what you do for a career and your calling, your life purpose. If these describe you, you are not alone. From 20-somethings to Baby-boomers, more people are waking up from their slumber and …

You are in the middle of a client meeting, presenting information that your client has asked for. As you progress through the material, she periodically stops you to ask for clarification or more details. You respond and move on to the next point. It’s going pretty well. Then, suddenly you notice the time. Yikes! It …

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 …

Coca-Cola Crisis Management Fail: Ignoring Basics Always ask, “Who could be offended by this?” When launching a major promo for a product, it’s Crisis Management 101, it’s very important to do your homework to ensure that you won’t be creating an ugly situation in the process. After reading about Coca-Cola’s latest marketing #fail there should …