Tag: Fundraising
Why Most Donor Portfolios Collapse
Most donor portfolios don’t fail because of effort. They fail because they were never portfolios. They’re lists. Typical portfolio: That’s […]
Why Most Major Gifts Roles Fail (And It’s Not the Fundraiser)
Most nonprofits don’t have a major gifts problem. They have a development infrastructure problem. Every year, organizations post roles like: […]
Your Board Won’t Fundraise? Maybe We Need a Better Definition of Fundraising.
Too often, when nonprofit leaders say, “My board won’t fundraise,” what they really mean is: “My board doesn’t know what […]
Donors Aren’t Ignoring You. They’re Overwhelmed.
One of the things I remember from my early marketing classes is that it takes multiple touches before someone acts […]
Why Development Directors Keep Failing (and It’s Not Their Fault)
In more than 15 years of working in nonprofit fundraising, I’ve watched the same cycle repeat itself over and over […]
The Time Tension: Why Fundraising Feels So Hard (and What Nonprofits Can Do About It)
I left a recent gathering of the Pacific Northwest Fundraising (PNWF) Advisory Board with a few pages of notes and […]
The High Cost of Low Nonprofit Pay (And Why Fundraising Keeps Breaking)
The Chronicle of Philanthropy published a piece this week about the high cost of low nonprofit pay. It wasn’t controversial. […]
High Open Rates Aren’t a Marketing Metric.
They’re an Organizational Asset. One of the most misunderstood signals in nonprofit fundraising is email open rate. When a nonprofit […]
It Isn’t “Just Social Media.” It’s Fundraising Infrastructure.
One of the things that still makes me a little crazy after 15+ years in nonprofit development is how quickly […]
The Nonprofit Sector Isn’t Experiencing a Downturn — It’s Undergoing a Structural Reset
Across the nonprofit sector, there’s a growing sense that something fundamental has shifted. Budgets feel tighter. Grant decisions feel less […]
Navigating a Structural Reset in the Nonprofit Sector
Why Development Systems Matter More Than Ever A Positioning Paper from Pacific Northwest Fundraising Executive Context Nonprofit organizations across the […]
A Thoughtful Yes to Capital Campaigns: The Work That Happens Before Major Asks
Capital campaigns are often framed as big fundraising moments: kickoff events, public goal announcements, and bold community ambitions. But the […]