Not long ago I had the good experience of listening to Adam Weinberg, president of Denison University address parents and families of current students. He delivered prepared remarks for about 15 minutes (no powerpoint) and he spent another 45 minutes addressing questions from the audience. Here are 3 things president Weinberg said that struck me:…
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If you are seeking a service, a product, or an experience, you can find an online review as quickly as you can access Google. Of course, finding online reviews quickly is not the same as trusting online reviews. In fact, it is estimated that between 30 – 50% of all online reviews are fake and designed to fool…
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Ocean waves are constant. If you’re like me, that constancy is big part of the allure of a beach vacation. The dependability of both the visual and aural “white noise” of waves at the beach cause an immediate sense of peace and calm for me. But ocean (or Gulf) waves are more essential than providing…
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In this Gonser Gerber Institute “Quick Bite” On Demand program, we will explore the importance of preparing, planning, communicating, organizing, and running board meetings, and good practices for following up afterwards.
On Demand Program
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Join Erin Phillips as she shares the best ways to focus your board members on this critical work that can help elevate your advancement program, and help your Board members feel engaged and enthusiastic about their work.
“Trust-based philanthropy,” is all over the business news pages these days. Essentially, in a trust-based model of giving, donors embrace three perspectives regarding their support: Unrestricted giving, when done through helpful nonprofit partners, offers the best type of philanthropic support to make a difference; Helpful nonprofit partners are those who are willing to be transparent and relational…
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You’ve heard the expression in advancement and development circles, “We can’t keep going to the same donors over and over again. The well will go dry.” That’s not altogether true. But since it’s such a widely-used analogy, let’s play with it a bit. Certainly real water wells can “go dry.” So, that part is accurate.…
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The 5 critically-important, unvarnished, and uncomplicated steps to raising considerably more money: Start by creating an institution-wide strategic plan that invites input and perspectives from a variety of constituents. The finished plan should specifically identify key priorities your institution will pursue over the next 3-5 years and should paint an inspirational narrative of how you…
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In today’s advancement world, the function of “stewardship” is constrained (typically and artificially) to those activities and responses the institution makes once a gift has been made. For instance, we steward a donor through our public recognition programs and how we extend thanks based on their giving level, etc. But this constrained view of stewardship…
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Becoming expert (adjective) is different than becoming an expert (noun). The former implies a willingness to embrace a developmental journey focused on enhancing one’s experience, knowledge, skill, adroitness. The latter evokes a desire to seek a position or standing among others. Becoming an expert is an end result in which one is viewed as a…
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