06 Dec 5 Reasons why you need a Fundraising Plan
...
Fundraising
Customer Success Manager at Blackbaud Canada24 Oct Compassion
This is the final blog post in a series of 6 entitled the Fundraiser Mindset. You can read my post on Discipline, Strategic, Communication, Passion, and Commitment here.
Compassion begins (and ends) with you.
I had an amazing choir director when I was at McGill University. He was crazy busy – he conducted an incredible number of chamber choirs and ensembles at the university. I asked him how he did it: how did he keep up his energy level every single day, never wavering in his enthusiasm?
His answer was simple. He refueled with the energy from his choirs. They made it possible for him to continue working tirelessly every day.
COMPASSION…. for yourself
Fundraisers are quick to be compassionate for others – our donors, our program recipients, our colleagues. But we not always compassionate with ourselves.
11 Oct Commitment
This is the fifth blog post in a series of 6 entitled the Fundraiser Mindset. You can read my post on Discipline, Strategic, Communication and Passion here.
So you want to be a successful fundraiser…great news! I mean really, who DOESN’T want to be a successful fundraiser, right?
But wanting to be successful, and putting into steps the actions and behaviours that will achieve your goals are two different things.
You want to be successful, BUT:
- You get distracted from your goals by administrative work, or volunteer work (mea culpa on that one!!) or a whole litany of other excuses.
- You’re quick to point out all of the problems that stop you from doing your job at your organization. It’s the structure that’s wrong. If that was fixed, THEN you could be successful.
- You just don’t have enough time to do the things you need to do to meet your goals.
Zig Ziglar says
27 Sep Passion
This is the fourth blog post in a series of 6 entitled the Fundraiser Mindset. You can read my posts on Discipline, Strategic and Communication here.
The dictionary’s definition of passion is “a strong and barely controllable emotion.”
What does passion look like?
Passion is what helps us overcome obstacles. Passion is the counterbalance to the (relatively) low salaries in not-for-profit. How many times have I heard “You’re in not-for-profit? Your work must be so rewarding.”
Well, yes, sometimes it’s rewarding…
12 Sep Communication
This is the third blog post in a series of 6 entitled the Fundraiser Mindset. You can read my post on Discipline and Strategic here.
Last month I achieved an amazing milestone in my personal life. I won the National Women’s Tennis over 40 doubles Championship. Yes! Me! Here’s a pic of me and my partner to prove that this really happened!!! We were definitely the underdogs in this Canadian women’s finals—we knocked off the #1 and the #3 seed to win the title!
What did we do to win, you ask?
We kept the ball going back and forth over the net. We reacted to their ball, and responded appropriately.
Tennis is a fabulous analogy for great communication. Great communicators know that the ball has to go back and forth over the net in order to have a meaningful dialogue.
29 Aug Strategic
This is the second blog post in a series of 6 entitled the Fundraiser Mindset. You can read my post on Discipline here.
Strategic is one of those words that gets bounced around at staff meetings and retreats. It comes loaded with different meaning (and baggage!) depending on who is using it.
[caption id="attachment_1928" align="alignleft" width="350"]
Game of Thrones title card | Copyright HBO[/caption]
There's this great scene in Game of Thrones that defines strategic for me. The bad guys have ladders, and they’re climbing up and over the fortress wall. The good guys have a choice to a) shoot the guy coming over the wall or b) shoot the ladder so that no more bad guys climb over the wall. Option a is the tactical move—shoot the guy that is threatening your safety. Option b is the strategic move—position yourself differently so that you can save time, be more efficient and work smarter to kill future bad guys.
14 Aug Discipline
As a professional classical pianist living in New York City I learned a thing or two about discipline—getting up at 6 am to line up for practice rooms so that you can practice for 6 hours in a cubicle, perfecting your version of Schumann’s Piano Concerto is a true test of anyone’s discipline.
Hard work taught me that anything worth achieving in life is worth fighting for. Fundraising is a multi-tasking profession: despite our best efforts, we wind up chasing the new shiny object around the office, instead of applying discipline and structure to what we know will bring in revenue. Fundraising work plays the “long game.” There are no shortcuts, no easy money, and when projects are BIG, with long timelines, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and frustrated.
The key to successfully completing any important fundraising task is discipline.
What is discipline?
31 Jul What I’m reading this summer for fundraising inspiration
When I’m in need of some inspiration to revitalize my work day, I turn to books. Over the summer, I do a lot of reading, mulling over projects and ideas for the year.
I also read a lot at the cottage. That’s me—to the right—on a girls’ weekend in Wakefield Quebec with some of my oldest and dearest friends. That weekend I brought along three books (I am also an ambitious reader!). Here’s what I am reading, and why!
1 The Art of Relevance by Nina Simon
07 Jun Exercise your “ask muscle”
Fundraising asks happen behind closed doors, in private. In my Major Gift Mastery courses, Module 4 is the section where we role play to exercise our "ask muscles."
Here's some key takeaways from my last Major Gifts Mastery "ask" discussion. Which ones resonate the most with you? Add them in the comments section below and let's open up the doors, and learn from each other's experiences "making the ask"