Here’s something to consider:  A job interview goes both ways. That is, the interview is not just a way for a prospective employer to learn about you … … it’s also a way for you to learn about your prospective employer. That’s why you should be ready with questions of your own when you go into the interview. If you find out they don’t like that you’re asking questions, that alone is probably a red flag you should pay a lot of attention to. In most interviews, asking questions usually helps make you come across as more engaging and engaged. But more importantly, there’s a lot you need to k ..read more

Getting enough rest is critical to staying energetic, focused, and successful in your work. After all, even God is reported to have taken a day off after six straight days of hard work creating the universe! When you have a demanding job, getting the rest you need might sometimes seem impossible. Also, you may think you can go without much rest – especially if you’re still filled with the energy of youth. But that’s an illusion. One that will eventually hit you very hard and torpedo your effectiveness. You need rest! Here are some ways to get that restorative rest: Take a day off every week Mo ..read more

Stories can be fundraising magic. You know that. What doesn’t get said out loud often enough is this: Stories can be difficult to tell! When they’re done well, they come across as effortless, almost as if all someone had to do was transcribe the story directly into their fundraising. If only… The reality is that stories are hard work. And there are serious barriers to finding and shaping stories so that they do the job we need them to do for fundraising. Here are some of those story challenges and what you can do to work around them… Good stories don’t grow on trees You might be thinking, “Goo ..read more

Ready to raise more money? Here are some more commonly held fundraising myths that could be holding you back. Myth: Direct mail is dying They’ve been saying this since before the invention of the postage stamp. It’s usually said by someone trying to sell some kind of communication medium other than the mail. And it’s wrong. Direct mail is still going strong. It is still, arguably, the biggest source of donations and donors. (The house of worship collection plate may be bigger, depending on how you count things.) And direct mail is the top driver of online giving. If direct mail actually died ..read more

Do you have a feeling that your email fundraising programme isn’t as effective as it could be? Based on my experience, you are probably correct. You could be raising more. Also based on my experience, I think I know why: You aren’t emailing your donors often enough. That’s not true of everyone, but it’s true of most. In fact it’s typical for many fundraisers to be sending just one fundraising email per month. If that’s what you’re doing, you are leaving a lot of revenue on the table! Here are four important ways you can talk more to your donors about how they can make the world a better place ..read more

Imagine this: a nonprofit arts organization that had a sign outside their venue saying: “Wheelchair users not welcome.” That would be reprehensible. And in many places, illegal. An organization that would do that would clearly have its basic values twisted and broken. I’ve never heard of a nonprofit that would even come close to doing that. But every day I see nonprofits virtually doing just that by accident. Through lack of knowledge, lack of attention, lack of thinking things through, they are excluding people with different abilities. It’s both a major ethical lapse and damaging to revenue ..read more

Here’s some good news for fundraisers: If you make your fundraising work for everyone, regardless of their visual acuity, reading ability, attention, or knowledge and expertise — you make it better for everyone else too. That means when you write, design, and publish your fundraising messages so they are easily intelligible to all people, you are not choosing an unsatisfactory compromise to accommodate part of your audience. You are creating fundraising that works better for everyone. This isn’t theoretical. It’s a fact. For decades we’ve been testing fundraising messages. More accessible comm ..read more

Excerpted from The Storytelling Fundraiser by Professor Russell James. The full book (along with many other fundraising resources) is available for free at Encourage Generosity. An effective fundraising story isn’t just a good story. It must do something. It must lead to a gift. This means the story must be, to some extent, a story about the gift. It must be, in some way, a story about the donor and the donor’s action. “What changes if I give?” If your message doesn’t answer this question, it doesn’t promise a victory. It’s unlikely to be compelling. Sometimes another problem arises. Your mess ..read more

It’s not just you! Feeling “stuck” while you are trying to get your work done is something everyone faces at some time or another. Here are some ways you can deal with that feeling and get back to that sense of happy productivity… 1. It’s not just you. We often blame ourselves when we’re stuck. We tell ourselves there’s something wrong with us, that we’re just being lazy, that we’re just not good enough. Everyone hits walls like this. Everyone. Famous people. People you think of as superheroes. Your friends, neighbors, every stranger you pass. They all get stuck some of the time. Once you conv ..read more

This might come as a surprise: If you want to make email fundraising work, use the fundraising and direct response tools you already know. Nearly every time I look at an online fundraising program that’s not pulling its weight, I see a program that doesn’t use the timeless fundraising tools and tactics that we know work offline. No matter what channel you’re working in, good fundraising is good fundraising. It triggers an emotional response in your supporters. It empowers them, positioning them as someone who can help solve the problem. And it stirs them to action, to pull out their wallet and ..read more