A recent five-hour drive to my dad’s home was more than enough time for thoughts to drift in and out about work over the last several weeks. First, there was a phone conversation with a couple exploring a list of nonprofits and navigating how to make large donations to safe, stable organizations. I reflected on the hard work of being intentional about the giving list and their next steps. T ...[Read More]
How to Give Well When a Nonprofit is in Transition
How Do You Know If Your Last One-third Has Started?
What if today is the beginning of the last one-third of your life? How will you define success for that last one-third? Generosity or zeroes in the bank? I recently read an article about giving in the last one-third of a lifetime. The writer, Bruce Deboskey, a well-known philanthropy consultant, was talking about donors beyond the age of 65. Of course, I immediately wondered how many of us know wh ...[Read More]
How Do You Slow Nonprofit Traffic in Your Mailbox?
Frankly, I’m stumped. A friend asked how to get nonprofit organizations to stop sending information, invites and fundraising letters. What makes this a complicated question, and what I explained to my friend, is that nonprofits learn a relationship with a donor takes more than one connection – more than one mailing, more than one e-mail or newsletter. Nonprofits learn it takes at least seven ...[Read More]
How to Dig into a Nonprofit’s Numbers
Paul Harvey might have left us ten years ago, but the rest of the story has never gone away. Growing up on AM radio meant that I listened to Paul Harvey talk about the news of the day and heard his fascinating The Rest of the Story segments almost daily. I learned things are never as simple as they appear on the surface. When I entered the nonprofit world, and later became a philanthropy advisor I ...[Read More]