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Customer Success Manager at Blackbaud Canada

diceFull disclosure for this blog post: I barely passed statistics in university. I was an Economics minor that took the remedial statistics class. I memorized my formulas and squeaked my way through the course. Fast forward a few – almost 20 – years, and it turns out that I use statistics quite a bit in my daily life as a fundraiser. Thankfully I am not calculating statistics, but rather I use statistics to emphasize a point, demonstrate a need, or to highlight a social inequality.

Statistics – the big, the bad and the ugly

Not-for-profits spend a lot of time talking about big statistics:

This is Ellie. Ellie is a pet Dragon on loan to me from my daughter. She perches on my office wall and helps me work. Usually Ellie is a behind the scenes sort of gal, but I get so much inspiration from her and from the rest of my children’s creations it seems somehow wrong to keep her to myself. Plus, she sparkles--how cool is that??? Today’s lesson from Ellie is inspired by the power of a child’s imagination.

[caption id="attachment_94" align="alignright" width="232" caption="Jenny Mitchell - fundraising writer"][/caption] Why hiring an outside communications writer is an investment in change (This blog post is part two of Sarah Banks guest post.) Thanks Sarah. So…if you are the in-house special, does that make me the out-house special? Back to fundraising/communications writing outsourcing…. I work with some amazing clients. Seriously. And every day I am amazed at what they accomplish within a tight budget, sometimes through sheer will power and passion. My goal is to come into their organization and take tasks off their desk:  if I’m not making their life easier, why the heck am I charging them for my services? Here’s my take on why you should outsource your communications and/or fundraising writing.

[caption id="attachment_70" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Sarah Banks -communications gal"] [/caption] Meet Sarah Banks, Communications Manager for the YMCA of Hamilton/ Burlington/ Brantford. My colleague Sarah agreed to guest blog and share her perspective on being an inhouse communications person. Sarah's Post: The in-house special Why a full-time communications employee may be the way to go We’ve all heard the pros and cons of being a freelance communications consultant but what about the pros and cons on the client side—contracting out communications work vs. hiring a full-time in house expert. My friend and fellow communications gal, Jenny Mitchell has asked me to share my insight on being the latter, as she represents the former. I’m more than happy to do so and take great delight in the paradoxical fact that I’m in my pajamas as I plink away at the keyboard on a Sunday morning. As I see it, there are three key advantages to hiring in-house. Cost, intimate knowledge of the subject at hand and convenience are the three bonuses to consider. Allow me to elaborate: