Resources / Research

• “Toward Transfeminism: Moving beyond Inclusion,” Zave Martohardjono and Rye Young.
• “The Importance of Linking Leadership Succession, Strategy, and Governance,” Thomas Gilmore
• “Perpetuity or Spend-Down: Does the Notion of Lifespan Matter in Organized Philanthropy?” France Ostrower

Thanks, as always, to the Nonprofit Quarterly. I hope you subscribe. You really can’t afford to miss the daily online feed and quarterly print publication.

Have your board members read an interesting article — and then talk about the implications and the strategic questions for your organization. Do this regularly! And with your staff, too.

Check out this article – also good for a conversation.

• “The Management Myth,” Matthew Steward, June 2006, The Atlantic

Three really great blog reads.

• Increase our visibility! Build community awareness of our greatness! (From Tom Ahern’s personal blog.)
• Applying psychology to fundraising (From The Agitator)
• Fundraising change is like climate change (From The Agitator)

Read. Learn. Share with staff colleagues, bosses, and boards.

Explain why. Help staff, bosses, and boards understand and accept and own and focus on the right stuff.

That’s your job. To use the right stuff from the right people. Explain the why. Help all those others accept and own and focus on the right stuff, not the wrong stuff.

This takes time. And I’m not talking weeks or months!

Persevere!

And if you can’t get this done… Look in the mirror first. Maybe you’re the problem. But maybe you’re not the problem. Maybe they’re the problem.

Find an ally (or two) to help you help them get it.

And if that doesn’t work…. Look for another job. You deserve better.

You MUST ABSOLUTELY READ Laura Liswood’s book THE LOUDEST DUCK!!!

• About diversity. But about much more than diversity. About the complexities of building a better organization (for-profit or nonprofit) for creativity and change and success.
• About the dominant people and the non-dominant people. About power and position… gender and sexual orientation and race and so much more than diversity. And unearned privilege.
• All managers should read this book. All employees should read this book. Anyone who wants to be a leader and to be productive and successful and and and …. should read this book.
• Yes. I really like this book. I’m going to assign it to some class of mine. Go to Amazon right now!
• And you can hear Laura Liswood present in the very special track of Rebels, Renegades, and Pioneers at the AFP International Conference in Boston, March 2016.

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And check out this information from the wonderful Melissa Brown.

• 60% of Americans give to charity in a year, and voter turnout is not likely to be much higher than that, based on prior year’s experience (it was 62% in 2008, the highest in a presidential election year since 1960). Further, of registered voters, 43% are independent of a party, so are not likely giving to the party coffers. 
• More telling, according to OpenSecrets.org, just 0.4% of the US population gave more than $200 to a political campaign in 2012. That includes contributions to parties, PACS, or campaigns. An average donor household in 2008 gave about $2,300 to charity.
• Charitable giving total is $360Billion + or minus.  ALL campaigns in a presidential year total somewhere south of $10 billion (The Federal Elections Commission reports $7B spent in 2012).
• $10 billion is 3% of of $360 billion, and following the OpenSecrets report, almost all of that $10B is from a very small number of donors, most of whom are engaged at a high level in the political process. (Think Koch brothers, George Soros, the Bass family, Michael Bloomberg, etc.).
• It is possible that some subsectors where legislative activity is important – such as environment, civil rights, or movements such as for charter schools — will feel the pain more than arts, higher education, health care, etc.  It is possible that communities where highly politically engaged donors live will feel the pinch – Fort Worth or parts of New York, for example.
• But for the rest of us, it is not likely that politics will siphon dollars away from charity.
• And a survey of donors just released also supports this: Dunham+Company Survey Indicates Charitable Giving Won’t Be Affected By Presidential Election Year | Dunham+Company | fundraising research

Yes. Sure. Okay. I get it. Hell…I’m even tweeting now.

But balance is good.

Begin 2016 with a reading of Andrew Sullivan’s marvelous article “I Used to Be a Human Being.” Andrew Sullivan is a writer, editor, blogger. His blog The Daily Dish began in late 2000 and one the 2008 Weblog Award for Best Blog.

Sullivan is a major major major player in digital stuff. MAJOR! Tons of awards for blogging.

And then he wrote “I Used to Be a Human Being…” “An endless bombardment of news and gossip and images has rendered us manic information addicts. It broke me. It might break you, too.

Read this piece before you break.

Here’s a selection of articles about budgeting and fundraising budgets. Check them out!

Crafting a Killer Campaign Budget by Charlie Deese

Fundraising on a Budget and Understanding the Fundraising Budget by me, Simone

A Little Working Capital, Please! by Ruth McCambridge

Why Funding Overhead is Not the Real Issue: The Case to Cover Full Costs by Claire Knowlton

I’m sitting on the floor in the corner of my London hotel room. Feels good on my back. It’s actually 8:40 a.m. on October 16. This afternoon is the meeting of the Advisory Board for the Centre for Sustainable Philanthropy, Plymouth University. I’m the chair of the Centre’s Advisory Board.

Yes, I write some of my blogs in advance…for example this one. In fact, I intentionally post many of my resource blogs weeks after the origination of the resource. WHY? Because really good resources don’t go out of date. Really good resources last forever.

You may have read the resource back when it first came out – because I’m so often sharing from places like NPQ…The Agitator…Jeff Brooks…Bloomerang…The Hub…Hillborn…wherever and whatever and more. But I want to remind you of the resource a while later. Because I think the resource is worth remembering and keeping and applying.

So here goes, some resources I find very useful and applicable and and and ….

“Your donors are trashing your emails. Here’s what you can do about it.” Thank you, Jeff Brooks. So many emails…How many get opened?

Carl Sussman’s magnificent always useful read it now article: “Making Change: How to Build Adaptive Capacity.” This is a must-read for any fundraiser, all management staff, board members. This is a great article for management of your own life, too!

Check out the 101Fundraising Blog. International. Yippee! And here are their top 10 right now. And read this one about looking out the window, not in the mirror.

Resources? More resources? Damn. I am so far behind! Read Steven Shattuck’s post of the Top 40 Blogs to read in 2015. I’ve shared this with you before. I’m sharing it again. And kicking myself to read more of these, too!

Okay. That’s it. I’m getting up from the floor now. Nice for my back but too hard for that other part of me at the moment!

Share some of your favorite resources in the comments section of this blog. We can all learn more together.

The wonderful Jeff Brooks at the wonderful futurefundraisingnow.com has compiled some great examples of loving your donors. Check out the examples. And then do it like that, eh?!

Check out the newest report from the Fundraising Effectiveness Project (FEP).

• Review the 2015 year report right now!
• Review last year’s, 2014.
• I always aim for the retention rates, first.

Hello there, you workers in the NGO sector. You consultants. You donors and big-time funding sources like foundations and …

You and I need to read and apply. Question and challenge. Try and fail. Try and succeed. Practice over and over. Talk about what we’ve learned. Learn what we’ve talked about.

And… We need to figure out how to ignore the stuff that is pretty much unimportant. Pay attention to the more important and really important.

You know… All the stuff that makes us competent and useful and successful and helpful and valuable.

So here’s more stuff to read and reference and learn from and find curious. Do you have someone to talk with about all this?

Check out Vu Le. And read his blog. And pay attention to cultural competency points. And…

Here are books I’m aiming to read:

• Life Inc: How Corporatism Conquered the World, and How We Can Take It Back by Douglas Rushkoff
• Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink
• The End of Absence: Reclaiming What We’ve Lost in a World of Constant Connection by Michael Harris

And here’s the really big question: How do you use these in your work? How do you get this information into your organization? How do you talk about the themes and implications with your colleagues?

Ted Hart and I are talking on his radio show on Tuesday, May 5. That’s 12 noon eastern U.S. time.

You can call in with questions or comments.

The Nonprofit Coach with Ted Hart

And you can listen to more than 150 podcasts, too!

People are always asking me what I’m reading. That’s why I have a blog category called “Resources” and another called “Research.”

I rarely use the word “should.” But when it comes to being a professional fundraiser, operating as a professional in the NGO sector… and functioning as a member of civil society….

Then I use the word “should.” So here’s some of the stuff I’ve been reading.

• Get your own copy of the Nonprofit Quarterly‘s spring 2015 issue. The focus “Inequality’s tipping point & the pivotal role of nonprofits.”  Online, check out this article: “Philanthropy’s Misguided Ideas for Fixing Ghetto Poverty: The Limits of Free Markets and Place-Based Initiatives.”
• Check out the latest critical fundraising blogs.
• “Are your program people helping your fundraising?” Marvelous piece by Jeff Brooks.
• And another one from Mr. Jeff… about photos…
• “Do You Have a Story To Tell? Baby Boomers Want to Hear It.” Thanks to The Agitator for pointing this out. And remember, focus on the donor audience…which are us older folks…not the millennials!!

Read! Read fundraising stuff and not fundraising stuff. Lifelong learning… What a great piece of life.