Boston University's Questrom School of Business hosted a panel discussion with nonprofit leaders to discuss a report on nonprofit leadership in New England, published by Third Sector New England. The discussion was lively, focusing a lot on nonprofit sustainability, and with people sharing lots of opinions on what works and where there are challenges with the current state of nonprofit leadership. Hez...

We have started to interview nonprofit leaders to hear their perspective on trends, challenges and opportunities in the nonprofit sector. We are calling it our “On the Fly” series because we’re taking a decidedly basic approach to capturing the interviews – dropping the camera in front of the subject and letting them talk. If you know of any good individuals who have insights to share, please...

  Most of us recognize the importance of building relationships and networks to advance our marketing and fundraising goals. But many of us may fall short in terms of making connections for others or seeking introductions for of a variety of reasons. In a recent presentation at Women in Development of Greater Boston, Kristin Wright Howard shared some insights. Building relationships and creating...

High impact philanthropy was the topic of discussion at a recent event hosted by the Boston Philanthropic Advisors Roundtable (BPART) featuring Christine Kendall from SmarterGive. Although the information was mainly geared towards an audience of philanthropic advisors and foundations, it has relevance for other individuals and nonprofits as well. Key Features of High Impact Philanthropy Christine...

    At a recent Women in Development of Greater Boston event, nonprofit fundraisers in education and health shared stories as well as some trends they are seeing in the philanthropic landscape.   Moderated by Michael McNally, Deputy Vice Dean for External Relations at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the panel included: Sarah Christensen, Senior Director of Development...

"That was a good dinner! I am so full, I can barely finish my plate!" How many times have you said this phrase? I know that I've said this countless times. This got me thinking, when we throw away food, where does it go? How much food are we actually throwing away? This led me to our next Did You Know? video, which answers this questions about food waste.

I recently attended a presentation by Suzan Czajkowski, who shared some best practices when using email marketing to promote fundraising events. Simplify Email marketing is about keeping things simple and clear for your readers.  When sending out invitation and registration emails, make sure that the sign-up link is the most obvious content.  It should be above the scroll line. Reduce 66%...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy6gjkICKfk During Super Bowl 50, you may have seen that commercial.  Amongst all the flashy and even goofy commercials, this one made you step back and think.  NO MORE is a public awareness campaign aimed at ending domestic violence and sexual assault.  This advertisement was very effective.  How is this 30-second commercial so compelling? How can you use similar...

Tom Ahern was a recent guest speaker at Women in Development of Greater Boston, sharing tips on writing for digital donor communications. Here are three takeaways I thought were particularly interesting and useful: Using “we” is for public relations. Using “you” is for donor communications. You need to tell the donors that they are needed before they are primed to give. When communicating...

  February is Heart Disease Awareness month. In light of this, we created another "Did You Know?" animation to offer a tip to help prevent this disease. And it begins with a smile.