I talked last week about the importance of bringing your board up to speed on the principles of Transformational Giving and promised a few additional ideas on how to do just that.
“You should start by engaging your board in TG the same way you would engage your champions in your cause. By getting them involved. Allowing them to participate in the process. Inviting them to the table of development planning.” In addition to inviting your board members to attend a monthly training event...
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I was recently reading a book by my good friend C. Daniel LeLaCheur titled, “The Legacy Lives On” which is the sequel to his first book “Generational Legacy.” Dan has been a pastor and has devoted his life’s work to helping families and teaching them how pass on a blessing to their children that will last for generations.
As I was reading this book I am reminded that as ministry leaders, ministry partners (champions) etc. that we too are like parents and what we do today has great impact...
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An Executive Director of a youth ministry recently asked me to critique the script for ‘the Ask’ he’ll deliver at his organization’s upcoming fundraising dinner. My comments could be relevant to many ministries so I’ve taken the liberty to share them here. General suggestions: Speak from the heart and be conversational. Imagine you are in a 1:1 deep conversation with somebody. Speak like that!
Do your best to avoid language that is hard to understand or which...
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Last week I talked about coaching champions on planned giving. I'd like to continue with that topic, but address one of the more challenging aspects of it, at least in my opinion. I'm talking about non financial types of planned gifts that have a transformative effect on both the giver and receiver. It's certainly easier to come up with ideas for these types of gifts from a personal and familial aspect. For example, in my family my grandmother and parents are both filling out a Legacy...
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Consider the nonprofit newsletter. All nonprofits, whether big or small, professional or amateur, local or international, competent or incompetent, must burst at the seams with news, because they all share newsletters with the world. Unfortunately, most of these organizations get it terribly wrong.My gripe? The incessant, compulsive, unwavering focus on the organization! “We did this, we did that, we will do this other thing”, and on and on. Memo to nonprofits: we don’t care about you...
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