There seems to be a lot of dialogue these days about the skill of listening, what it means, and how to do it well - or not. What does listening mean to you?? Fundraiser Jeff Brooks in his article, 'Easier Said Than Done: Three Laws of Fundraising Dynamics' says that listening - and I paraphrase - is partly a matter of shutting up so that you can hear donors talk. Hmm. As ministry supporter or champion, would you feel warm and fuzzy about chatting over coffee with this guy?? Then there's...
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This week I'd like to continue our discussion about lapsed champions. (You can check out last week's post where I touched on the great value of a champion covenant). One of the interesting conversations from the MIF labs this month on lapsed champions was discerning not only who has lapsed (that seemed to be the easy part), but of those who have lapsed, which ones are really "of us" that you need to fully invest your time in reconnecting with (this phrase "of us" is taken from 1 John 2:19...
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Over on his brilliant blog, Eric Foley has been thinking about the profound differences between partnership and pity in philanthropy.
I came across a quote that speaks to the topic and commented on it there, but I think it’s so provocative I want to discuss it further here. The quote: “We must be aware of the dangers which lie in our most generous wishes. Some paradox of our nature leads us, when once we have made our fellow men the object of our enlightened interest, to go on to make them...
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Last Tuesday I began explaining the Four P’s of communicating our vision based on the book, Managing Transitions, by William Bridges (Perseus Publishing, 1991, 2003).
The Four P’s must be communicated. If not, vision is empty and abstract and virtually impossible for people to wrap their arms around.
A partial review of the first two…
(1) We must communicate the Purpose behind our vision. Communicating purpose to our people means answering the question, “Why are we doing what...
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Mission Increase Foundation created The Ten Principles of Transformational Giving, and #10 has got to be my favorite.
“Champions connect with each other and with organizations not according to the amount of their giving but by the degree of comprehensive personal ownership they are exhibiting in the cause.”
But wait, champions always connect with organizations based on how much money they give. What else is there? How else does the org decide who gets the hand written thank you...
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