…to launch a successful crowdsourcing campaign. MORE
As we gear up for a second round of our Fairmount4Free pro bono initiative – stay tuned for an announcement this summer! – it’s important to look back on what we accomplished the first time around. For those not in the know, we launched Fairmount4Free as our very first pro bono initiative last summer, which offers $10,000 of free consulting services to smaller nonprofits in the area doing exciting work. The response was amazing (and even inspired us to expand pro bono support to the many new nonprofit leaders in our city through the PHL NExT initiative). After much deliberation we selected PhilaSoup, an education-focused microgrant dinner that awards funding to exciting classroom projects, as one of our inaugural awardees. MORE
If you’re walking around Philly today, chances are you have spring fever, like me. As it turns out, that urge to ditch your desk and go have lunch in the park is pretty healthy, and might actually help you work smarter. MORE
Punk rocker Amanda Palmer makes the point that by asking her audience for their support she creates an exchange that builds community and gives her listeners the opportunity to participate in something of meaning to them. Compare this to selling a product, a purely financial exchange. Her music is free to anyone to download, while she asks her fans to pay what they want. The result is far more money than she would have raised through sales and a stronger connection and sense of trust between her and her audience. She also makes the point how vulnerable it feels to ask, but how gratifying it is to both parties to establish the resulting relationship.
Lessons learned for nonprofit fundraising?
Yesterday’s mail included a nice surprise underneath the bills: a one-pound box of dark truffles. There were about 30 truffles – old favorites to savor and new flavors to test. The project you’re trying to pitch to a funder is just one truffle in the box.
Part of what makes data collection and evaluation so challenging is that it’s not always clear what the most useful data to capture actually is. Last time, I talked about how an organization might determine what the most useful data is for evaluating performance of volunteers. It’s not as easy as it seems. MORE
Every January, the same scene: the gym locker room crowded with determined New Year’s Resolutioners. While not unwelcome, us long-termers know that 90% will be gone by March. What separates the 10% from the rest of the pack?
One of the most tired pieces of advice around nonprofits (as well as your personal career) is network, network, network!
This isn’t to say that networking and collaboration aren’t vitally important to an organization’s success – I’d wager it’s quite the opposite. In a world of finite human and financial resources and seemingly infinite need, successful nonprofits are connected to and learning from other great organizations. These nonprofits are also filled with well-connected individuals. MORE
