Seen, Heard & Noted
What Assets Do You Have That You Can Leverage? Finding ways to mitigate the loss of donor revenue during the absence of in-person events due to the pandemic is leading to a wide range of creative solutions. One of the most effective and brilliantly simple may have come from the …
Hindsight is 20/20: Hopeful Reflections from the Field
By Cynthia Armour Over the past three decades I’ve facilitated many strategic planning processes and helped boards and senior staff to explore and plan their organization’s futures. Ironically, many final strategy documents were earnestly entitled “Vision 2020” without any inkling of what horrors would unfold. My brother’s quick-witted quip has …
AFP Canada Chair Ken Mayhew: A Facilitator of the Goals and Vision of Others
Ken Mayhew is one of the best-known fund development professionals in Canada. He spent more than 20 years as the chief development officer at Multiple Sclerosis Canada, where he designed and rolled out some of the most innovative fundraising programs in the country, building a database of almost one million …
COVID-19 Upends the Charity Playbook
For Canadian charities, innovation is one path to success. By Rannella Billy-Ochieng, Claire Fan and Naomi Powell A healthy December bump eased what would otherwise have been a dismal year for Canadian charities. They will remember 2020 as a time of painful disruption, when virus-fighting measures stemmed or halted the …
From the Sidelines to the Field
By Valentina Suarez Throughout my life, I’ve always thought that everyone suffers in their own way. For me, it was shocking to see how some people were complaining about eating the same meal two or three days in a row, while others were struggling to get at least one meal …
Five Tips for Supporter Care in COVID Times
By Michelle Chambers We’re now over a year into a COVID response that has seen lockdown rules force the temporary closure of nonprofit offices and require home working of staff wherever possible. Besides disrupting the planned fundraising calendar, with external events and recruitment activities cancelled, it has also fractured the …
What You Learn When You Analyze Twitter on Giving Tuesday
By Matt Dubins Go on Twitter and search up the #GivingTuesday hashtag and you’ll find a never-ending torrent of tweets by non-profits trying to get the attention of digital passersby. Given how jam-packed the market is, and how short peoples’ attention spans are on Twitter, if there’s anything a non-profit …
Three Ways Direct Mail Supports Your Crowdfunding Campaign
By Grant Cobb Crowdfunding is a transformative strategy that can be used to harness the power of a large network or group and garner support. A crowdfunding campaign is typically hosted when an individual or group needs to raise money for an important cause in a limited time span. Some …
Ten Ways to Get Organized to Approach Major Donors
By Gail Perry So many folks are unsure how to approach major donors. It’s scary. It was scary for me, too, when I first started out. We all have challenges when it comes to major gift fundraising — and figuring out how to approach major donors face to face. It’s …
Top Five Fundraising No-Brainers for Nonprofit Professionals in 2021
By Amy Eisenstein When I was thinking about writing this idea of the no-brainers for fundraising in 2021, I put out a call on social media for 2021 no-brainers. Here are just a few of the responses I got: Wearing a mask when in public (for your safety and those …