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April 2016

Nonprofit Blog Carnival: Leadership in Fundraising

I’m delighted to be hosting May’s Nonprofit Blog Carnival.

With the presidential primaries well underway and the UK about to vote in the biggest referendum in a generation, leadership is a hot topic at the moment. I have been reading and thinking about the subject a lot recently and thought it would make for a great carnival topic. 

I strongly believe there is a leadership deficit in fundraising. The evidence of this? High staff turnover at nonprofits, a focus on short-term planning and results and a dearth of strategic thinking. Of course, there are brights spots and exceptions to this, but they are not as common as I would like!

So, for this month’s carnival I’d love to hear your stories and ideas about leadership:

  • Which leader do you most admire?

  • Who are the best, and worst, leaders you have worked for? What made them so good/bad?

  • What does leadership mean to you?

  • How can you be a leader in more junior roles?

  • How can fundraising solve its leadership crisis?

  • What are your ‘go-to’ leadership resources? For example, do you have a favourite book or Ted talk on the subject?

How To Submit Your Blog Post:

Submitting your posts to the Nonprofit Blog Carnival couldn't be easier. Just send both the URL of your post and a 2-3 sentence summary of your post to: [email protected] by Friday, May 27th to be considered! I'll be reviewing all submissions and choosing ones for inclusion in a "blog round up" post at the end of May.

April’s Carnival

Hosted by Erik Andersen of Donor Dreams blog, the topic was ‘Advice To My Younger Fundraiser Self’. Read some of the funny, insightful and moving stories on Erik’s blog.


Fundraising Reading Round Up

Don't worry, I'm still alive! It's been a long time since my last round-up. I've decided to only include items from March onwards, so apologies for people who shared great content in February. Enjoy and fingers crossed I'll be back early May!

Regulation and the proposed fundraising preference service (FPS) are still big topics of discussion. Here are a collection

Jackie Fowler and Ken Burnett with a case study on Botton Village. They've been using FPS since 1986!

Marg from the Fundraising Collective explains why the proposed service makes her head hurt.

Giles Pegram looks at the relationship between fundraisers and trustees at UK Fundraising.

The Fundraiser magazine finds out how the RNLI are doing since moving to opt-in for fundraising communications.

Stephen George lists 10 priorities for fundraising to get on the front foot.

Two Donald Trump analogies. First up, Insightful Fundraising warn us that we ignore the common man at our peril. Elsewhere, Jeff Brooks explains what fundraisers can learn from Trump's campaign.

March's Non-profit Blog Carnival was hosted by Rad Campaign. Look here for great advice and insight on reaching millenials. The Donor Dreams blog host April's and ask 'what advice would you give to your younger self'?

'What do your donors want?' asks Richard Turner.

The Veritus Group has an excellent new series on qualifying major donor leads.

Rachel Beer on 101 Fundraising implores fundraisers to stop talking about stewardship and start doing it.

Also on 101, Derek Humphries looks at the people who made relationship fundraising work.

Mark Phillips takes a look at 'trojan horse' fundraising.

Clarification has a great two part blog on getting more donors. Follow the links to part one and part two.

Wild Woman Fundraising on making the right fundraising decisions.

Lots of great stuff from Pamela Grow. I liked this thank you from St Jude's Children Research Hospital and this video from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Michael Rosen has a number of guest posts that link to the recent AFP 2016 conference. I liked this post on 'moneyball' numbers for digital fundraising.

I was delighted to do this interview with Ben Rymer of  (fund) raising voices.

Interested in prospect research? I loved the recent #ResearchPride initiative that Ben also blogged about. Read more about it and lots of great links to prospect research information.

Hilborn have a two part series on mid-level donors. Part two is here.

Lucy Gower reports what happened when she tried to unsubscribe from a number of e-mail lists.

Read about early findings and observations from Penelope Burk's annual donor survey.

Donor Relations Guru takes a look at their mailbox. The result? Lots of the same thing...

'But why?' asks Ann Green.

Bloomerang implore fundraisers to stop saying lapsed donors are your 'best prospects'.

For Impact on the importance of personal goals.

 Seth Godin on how to hack reciprocity.