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Julie Whelan Capell | Contributed by Julie Whelan Capell, MWA Associate Were your year-end appeal results much better than expected last year? First, let’s take a moment to celebrate your success. Your hard work, and the work of your board members and staff, paid off! Look at all those increased gifts, and all the new […]
Julie Whelan Capell | In my many years as a fundraising consultant, one of the topics I am asked to present on the most frequently is how to make the “ask.” For board members in particular, it seems asking for money is the hardest part of their responsibilities. Never mind that actually asking for donations […]
Julie Whelan Capell | Have you thought about how inflation worries might impact year-end giving this year? According to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, “When finances get tight, donors tend to pare down the number of charities they support.” (Inflation-Recession worry fundraisers, 7/19/22) What can you do to make sure your organization stays at the top […]
Julie Whelan Capell | One of our most-requested board workshops here at MWA is on involving board members in fundraising. I always enjoy doing this workshop because I love hearing the sighs of relief when I say: “Not every board member needs to ask for gifts.” And that is the truth. Not everyone is cut […]
Julie Whelan Capell | After reading Sara’s excellent three-part series on equitable hiring practices I realized there was more to say, specifically related to inclusive hiring for the development team. Anyone who’s been in fundraising for more than a minute or two knows that most fundraisers are white. In fact, in 2019, only about 13% […]
Julie Whelan Capell | Here at MWA, we get a lot of questions about succession planning. It’s one of those things that’s on everyone’s “to do” list, but never seems to get done. We’ve written about the risks of not planning for board succession and posted a straightforward guide to succession planning. One aspect that […]
Julie Whelan Capell | When you hear about online giving days, your mind may immediately go to #GivingTuesday. This national event occurs annually on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. But now, many other giving days are popping up throughout the year, usually organized by local foundations or United Ways. A couple of months ago, the Land […]
Julie Whelan Capell | To celebrate Earth Day on April 22nd, I was given the challenge of thinking about how to make fundraising more earth-friendly. At first, I wasn’t sure I could come up with even one idea. Then I did some research and asked some of my trusted development colleagues, who shared a bunch […]
Julie Whelan Capell | When was the last time you thought about the payment security of your organization’s fundraising tools? For decades, nonprofits have sent out donation response cards. We’ve all seen them: a card where donors can write their credit card information that they return via the US Postal Service. I’ve never heard of […]
Julie Whelan Capell | I’m a sucker for all those “trend” articles that come out at the beginning of the year, but they always leave me wondering who has time to do all the new things we’re supposed to be doing? The answer is, stop doing something. But what? Here are some ideas to get […]
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