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Does fundraising prepare you to be an entrepreneur? - Wild Woman Fundraising
In this last year, I've stepped away from fundraising full time and started to grow different businesses. And I've done fairly well, which makes me wonder, are fundraising and entrepreneurship similar? Could fundraising be the first step to starting your own business? Let's take a look. Fundraising: You learn how to market your nonprofit with
Invest in Technology, and Empower Your Donors to Fundraise for You! - Wild Woman Fundraising
How can you empower your donors to make something new? How can you help turn your donors into entrepreneurs for your cause? What's more exciting than starting something new, and making it your own? George Stevens recently posted on R.E. Foundations, the Council on Foundation's blog, about entrepreneurial donors. He wrote, “...community foundations are a platform for the nonprofit ecosystem. Do we encourage donor innovation using our platform? Do we engage the entrepreneurial donors in our communities? To fail to do so is to be left behind in the recovery of the nonprofit sector.”
Are you a membership based nonprofit? 3 ways to be better - Wild Woman Fundraising
I don't usually go in for membership. I find that whatever the cost is, it's usually not followed up with enough concrete benefits. However, there is ONE organization that I am a member of, which exceeds all my expectations, and I think it would help you to tell you about it.
How much of an impact do we have? - Wild Woman Fundraising
Whenever this downturn is getting you down, remember. YOU HAVE AN IMPACT. Whenever you think that no one understands your struggle, remember these statistics. 1 in 57 people works in the food service industry, while 1 in 10 people works in the nonprofit industry.
The Wild Woman’s Guide to Fundraising Journey! - Wild Woman Fundraising
So on Friday, September 10th, I got my book, The Wild Woman's Guide to Fundraising, printed on the Espresso Book Machine! There's a reason I look so happy in that picture! This proof represents three years of work. The Beginning: I read Tim Ferriss's "The 4 Hour Workweek" in 2007, and I thought, "How can
Creating Multiple Streams of Income For Your Nonprofit - Wild Woman Fundraising
Lately I've been talking with a few nonprofits, trying to figure out how to get them to expand their thinking around fundraising. A few nonprofits seem to think that fundraising is mainly grants, events, appeals, and major gifts. But it can be so much more! In addition to grants, appeals, events, major gifts, etc, what
Who do you think you’re talking to? Managing Gen Y - Wild Woman Fundraising
Gen Y has been accused of a lot of things. Ego-centricity. Being not able to finish things. Needing a trophy for everything. I disagree with labeling people Gen Y. The challenge with classifying people according to arbitrary periods of time is that you will find that many people, perhaps too many, are exceptions to the rules you've laid out for a "generation."
What dream do your donors have? - Wild Woman Fundraising
Do you know what keeps your donors up at night? Do you know how they've tried to solve this issue in other ways? Do you know what their dream is? Do you know their ideal solution? Say you're a museum in a small city. Your donors may come to you because they fear they are
Marketing Your Nonprofit: 5 More Things to Learn from The Long Tail - Wild Woman Fundraising
There's a reason you've never seen a full picture of me on here! Yeah, I've got a long tail. It's kind of got a "Puff The Magic Dragon" vibe. But I roll with it. So, in the spirit of my long tail, here's what I learned from Chris Anderson's bestseller The Long Tail, and how this applies to your nonprofit!
How to respond when a manager yells at you in front of staff - Wild Woman Fundraising
Perhaps this has happened to you. You're doing your work, and suddenly your boss comes over and starts screaming at you. Then they barge back into their office. You wonder what just happened. Perhaps you start to cry. Perhaps you yell back. Perhaps you start to search for another job. How can you prevent verbal attacks? How can you stop the verbal attacker in their tracks? How can you make them understand that they are not going to get the rise out of you that they want?
What makes people want to give to you? - Wild Woman Fundraising
Five things can make people want to give to you, according to Robert Cialdini's book, Influence. Reciprocation This is also known as the give and take and take. If you give a donor a flower, they might feel more inclined to give money to your organization. This is also the way the free sample works,
Development 301: Managing & Motivating Others, Part 3 - Wild Woman Fundraising
Hi! Thanks for reading this series on how to manage and motivate others by discovering their strengths and helping them find tasks that they can excel in! These descriptions are taken from the book, "Now, Discover your Strengths" by Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton, and I am indebted to them for their years of research
Development 301: Managing and Motivating Others Part 2 - Wild Woman Fundraising
How can you discover your strengths? How do you manage people? Have you taken the Gallup assessment, which was given to over 2 million people, and provided insights on 34 types you might have to manage at work? This can be an invaluable tool as you help people discover their strengths, and focus on these
How you can be an Executive Director - Wild Woman Fundraising
Have you ever wanted to lead a nonprofit or charity? What about starting one? Today we talked with Sue Thornton, former Executive Director for Texas Dentists for Healthy Smiles, and former Executive Director for Texas IMPACT. She managed three statewide organizations with strong legislative ties. She would advocate for issues for poor women and children,
Development 301: Managing & Motivating Others Part 1 - Wild Woman Fundraising
How can you motivate others? In three words: Strengths based management. What are your strengths? This post should help you. Here's how it works. People naturally tend to want their autonomy, to want self-direction in their tasks, and to want to use their areas of greatest strength at work. This is based on surveys of
How can you discover your strengths? - Wild Woman Fundraising
Let's start with vocabulary. What is a strength? A strength is something that you can visualize yourself doing repeatedly, happily, and successfully. Talents are naturally recurring patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, which make up your strengths. Skills are the steps of an activity, Knowledge is facts and lessons learned. You need a system to
Want to sell your hybrid nonprofit to a larger corporation? Start collaborating - Wild Woman Fundraising
Oh holy moly. World of Good got acquired by eBay and Greater Good! Now you can find World of Good at eBay. What is World of Good? World of Good was founded in 2004 by Priya Haji, MBA with the mission to help small artisan producers improve their livelihoods by providing them with access to mainstream retail markets.
Are you tired of your tiny wage? (How to make money on the side) - Wild Woman Fundraising
Are you living on credit? Are you making MUCH less than you deserve? Do you wonder what you're going to do about retirement? About your health if you get sick? What if in this downturn, your nonprofit decides they can't afford you anymore? What's your plan B or plan C? You don't HAVE ONE? Why
Do you want to learn how to ask for help? - Wild Woman Fundraising
I've got some good news for you! You can read these articles I've written. I've written a guest post last week for Sharp Skirts about how to ask for help, and how to find your magicians who help you here. I've written a guest post on how to manage volunteers for Vivanista.com! And thanks for
Do you have what it takes to be Chief Development Officer? - Wild Woman Fundraising
Why not come and find out? This July 27th, at 5:30pm at 2500 Exposition, Howson library in Austin, Texas, we'll be listening to Lisa Avra, Chief Development Officer, Harry Ransom Center at University of Texas at Austin. Ms. Avra graduated from Baylor University with a BA in Mass Communication and English. She then went on
Have you ever been fired? Was that awesome, or what? - Wild Woman Fundraising
Here's some advice from Dr. Bernadine Healy, former President of the American Red Cross, who raised over $3 BILLION dollars for them before being fired. She did all of this, mind you, with a brain tumor. "Life isn't a straight upward trajectory, but I think you will win more than you lose if you stand for something."
How you can become a Chief Development Officer - Wild Woman Fundraising
So how she got her executive position was at first through just volunteering, and she said, "You would not believe how many people become executives through volunteering first" and it's definitely true in my experience as well. "Money makes the world go around. If you can raise the money, you can do the good works." -Lisa Avra
Thank you for all of the joy - Wild Woman Fundraising
Wow. I'm so happy! This week RJ Leaman of the Wild Apricot Blog posted my presentation about rankism in the workplace. Last week iGrad posted my article on how to get a nonprofit job for new graduates. And I also guest posted about how to overcome workaholism over on the Fundraising Ideas blog! And I
A little grab-bag of free things for you - Wild Woman Fundraising
So FYI, if you haven't given to our kickstarter project yet, here are 3 good reasons why. Because: 1. You could help thousands, perhaps millions of people that you've never met! 2. Building the capacity of thousands of people to fundraise is not an opportunity that just comes along every day! 3. You can be the first in your city to have a game that teaches people in your organization how to fundraise. Imagine the edge you'll have when all of your volunteers know how to research grants for you, do a mailing, or run an event!
Your Fundraising Plan Checklist - Wild Woman Fundraising
Here is a Fundraising Plan Checklist that you can use every time you start a new appeal, campaign, event, or grant proposal. How much do we want to raise? Are you going to try to raise $3,000 with your annual report? Are you going to try to raise $20,000 with an event? What is a
Teaching other people how to fundraise - Wild Woman Fundraising
Are you the lone development person, or even part of a small team? What is one of your biggest problems? If you answered "Capacity" I think you'd be right. How can you build your capacity to raise more money? Well, you can't put more hours in the day, and you can't hire more people. Budgets
Top ten mistakes people make in fundraising - Wild Woman Fundraising
So are you: 0. Thinking that your nonprofit is looking out for you, and will reward all of your hard work with more money or respect or job titles? Think again. 1. Thinking fundraising is begging? It's not. It's relationship building. 2. Thinking that you should not get paid a living wage, nor should your
Your Massive Fundraising Resource List - Wild Woman Fundraising
Here's my resource list! I would like to keep it growing! Can you comment at the bottom with your favorite twitter friends, blogs, books, or other resources? Twitter If you're looking for people to follow, may I suggest: @wildwomanfund/funders (This is a list: I followed all of the top 100 foundations on Foundation Center, now
18 Ways You Can Demand Dignity at Work - Wild Woman Fundraising
“To have a name is to be,” said Benoit Mandelbrot, the inventor of fractals. As “sexism” gained a foothold, men’s desire to avoid being labeled “sexist” caused them to modify their treatment of women. Likewise, the desire of perpetrators to avoid being labeled rankist will make them think twice about insulting the dignity of subordinates.
Are You Fundraising in a Small Shop? - Wild Woman Fundraising
If you are fundraising in a small shop, I salute you. It is hard. You come to work and often receive no kudos or respect for what you do. I want you to know that I know what you're going through. And I appreciate that you take a small part of your limited time to read this.