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Sara Wilson, CPCC, ACC | Trust takes investment. Leaders I coach frequently talk about wanting more trust in their working relationships–both from their bosses and from those they supervise. “I want my ____ to trust me.” A simple statement, yet loaded and layered with expectations, hope and, frankly, effort that is required. We know that […]
Julie Whelan Capell | This is the fourth post in my series on major gifts fundraising. If you need to remember what I covered in my previous posts: Here are some ideas about how to figure out who you need to meet with Here are tips on getting prospects to accept a meeting Here I […]
Sara Wilson, CPCC, ACC | Are you in a rut? To break patterns and change habits, try doing what an otter would do! What do otters have to do with it? I’ll tell you in a minute, but first, let’s define some terms. Rut: a periodic and often annually recurring state of certain male animals […]
Sara is excited about her recent work designing and facilitating the executive director transition at Milwaukee’s Urban Ecology Center (UEC). When the longtime executive director Ken Leinbach announced he would be stepping down, Sara, who is on the UEC board, was in a position to put her leadership transition planning and facilitation skills into action. […]
Julie Whelan Capell | Here we are, part three in my series on “Making the Ask.” In May, I gave you some ideas about figuring out who are your major gift prospects. In June I reviewed how to get the ask meeting and today I’ll talk about preparing for the meeting. Before I get into […]
Julie Whelan Capell | Asking for major gifts is not as hard as many people think, but it does require quite a bit of preparation. As I discussed in last month’s post, first you need to figure out who you should be meeting with. Once you have a prioritized list of qualified prospects, the next […]
Julie Whelan Capell | Asking for money. If you’re a leader (staff or volunteer) of a nonprofit, eventually you’ll have to ask people for money. It’s part of the job description. I’ve often worked with clients who want to pass this job off to their development staff. That’s okay for some prospects, but the biggest, […]
Sara Wilson, CPCC, ACC | In a conversation with a leader this week she said she was learning that accountability is not the same as micro-managing. Wow! What a great thing to learn. It also made me reflect on how many leaders–at all levels–struggle with holding themselves and other individuals accountable. It’s worth a minute […]
Sara Wilson, CPCC, ACC | I recently had a couple of experiences that got me thinking about how we can always work harder to improve our listening skills: During a conversation, rather than listening, I started thinking about how to respond. I was talking to someone and suddenly their phone’s email notification sound dinged and […]
Julie Whelan Capell | I’ve been a fundraiser for a loooooong time–more than 30 years. In that time, I have heard many variations on statements like these: “Fundraisers are like used car sales people, they just talk at you until they wear you down” (that was my boss, the CEO of a large nonprofit. I […]
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