January 5, 2013

I think a good start for 2013 is sharing some of my favorite resources with you. Books and blogs. Videos and articles. Things you might put on your 2013 homework list.

Just remember this quote I heard somewhere: “If you read one hour a day in your chosen field, within a year you’ll be an expert. If you do that for three years straight, you’ll be a national expert.”  And here’s my perspective, you can’t stay a national expert if you only read for three years straight!

By the way, these are in no particular order. I’m just collecting and  sharing with you.

Neuroscience – a useful field for fundraiseres

  1. Neuroscience is critically important to fundraisers. Read “The Trust Molecule,” in The Wall Street Journal, April 28, 2012. Fundraisers know that trust is a key element of donor loyalty and lifetime value. Learn something from “Making Every Interaction Count: How Customer Intelligence Drives Customer Loyalty.”
  2. Subscribe to www.neurosciencemarketing.com. Read Roger Dooley’s book Brainfluence.

Emotions rule. Emotions are the key decision-makers for us humans. Neuroscience and neuro psychology prove it.

  1. Watch this wonderful presentation by Jeremy Rifkin, “The Empathetic Civilisation.” This is well worth the 11 minutes of your time to watch. Would probably be real good for you and your senior management team and your development team to watch this, too. Then talk about the implications for your organization.
  2. How to use emotions in a personal solicitation: The best solicitation I ever experienced. Read the column. And read the comments, too. Oh my.

Relationship building – so important in management, fundraising, and life

  1. The Face-to-Face Book: Why Real Relationships Rule in a Digital Marketplace: Wow. This is really good. Focuses on customers and consumerism. But we fundraisers know that donors are customers and consumers, too. Lots of good stuff about social media and personal face-to-race conversations.
  2.  Connected Citizens: The Power, Peril and Potential of Networks… A report from the Knight Foundation and Monitor Institute

Leadership

  1. Read Walter Isaacson’s biography, Steve Jobs. Yes, it’s worth it. I’m reflecting on management – what to do and not to do. Leadership – same thing. Extraordinary experiences. Customer (and donor)-centrism. And more. Isaacson also wrote an article for Harvard Business Review, “The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs.”
  2. Speaking of Jobs, read the Grizzard blog of 10-31-11, “What Would Steve Jobs Do at Your Nonprofit?” Also read the neuroscience marketing newsletter of August 25, 2010, “Revealed: How Steve Jobs Turns Customers into Fanatics.”
  3. Miss Representation: Marvelous videos. Excellent insights. Provocative challenges to gender bias. Share this with your mothers, sisters, daughters, nieces, partners, colleagues. Let’s get some more outrage going. By the way, any implications for your leadership, management, fundraising?

Fundraising stuff

  1. Check out Jeff Brooks’ blog of 10-31-11: The power of repetition in fundraising. And check out 11-01-11: The big fundraising mistake that leads to many other mistakes. Then share these two with your boss and board! Subscribe now. It’s free.
  2. Check out The Atlas of Giving. Trends and projections, forecasting not backcasting. I’ve downloaded it to read.
  3. AFP Ethics Assessment Inventory. Check it out at the Association of Philanthropic Professionals. You have to be a member. And membership in AFP is a good thing anyway! I’m always impressed with AFP’s Resource Center, for example.
  4. Read Seth Godin‘s “A paradoxical curve of money and effort,” from April 27, 2012. Hmmm….
  5. Read Fraser Green’s 3D PhilanthropyThis is a lovely, poetic view of philanthropy. Nice moments to share with board and staff colleagues who are afraid of fundraising.
  6. Read Jeff Brooks’ blog, “The top reason donors give to charity,” 08-16-11.
  7. Are you visiting SOFII regularly? Do it! The Showcase of Fundraising Innovation and Inspiration compiles best practice from around the world. Learn and enjoy.

Social media stuff

  1. Read my article “Social Media…I’m so Bored.” It’s a blog, an NPQ column, and an article in my Free Download Library. Read all the books and articles in that article. And if you have not yet read Sherry Turkle’s Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other, you must must must. NOW!
  2. Read Jeff Brooks‘ blog: “How to be a boring pest on social media,” 08-11-11.

And, take a look at this list of resources from Dianna Huff. Dianna is an avid reader like me. And she reads across sectors, like me. Dianna’s list includes books that can help us understand donors, manage better, be creative, etc.

By the way, Dianna is a Search Optimization Expert. She developed my new website and managed the design process with my great design firm. Dianna and Rachel and Stephen are customer-centered, insightful, helpful, talented, and reasonably priced. Check them out.

Filed under: Resources / Research

About Simone Joyaux

A consultant specializing in fund development, strategic planning, and board development, Simone P. Joyaux works with all types and sizes of nonprofits, speaks at conferences worldwide, and teaches in the graduate program for philanthropy at Saint Mary’s University, MN. Her books, Keep Your Donors and Strategic Fund Development, are standards in the field.

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