"Sometimes being honest and giving people something to talk about is the only thing that really matters." Rohit Bhargava
This quote is in reference to a marketing campaign by the Hans Brinker Budget Hotel in Amsterdam. The hotel has seen a 42% increase in occupancy. And their success has even led to a newly launched book that can be purchased at Amazon.com. Twenty-something’s are returning home to boast to their friends and family that they stayed in the worst hotel in the world while in...
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I’ll never forget an experience I had with my colleague, Suzanne, last year while attending a training event at the The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. We were in a group of twenty-something professionals at a two-day course titled Grassroots Fundraising. From the get-go – I’m talking immediately upon initial introductions - we earned a super charming nickname. ‘The church ladies. ’ We politely laughed and rolled with it even when the joke quickly got stale.
It was the...
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These past two months I’ve been living, eating and drinking the topic of lapsed champions (you know, those individuals who were once part of your ministry and cause by giving, volunteering, serving, etc, but have fallen away for one reason or another). In future posts I’ll share a few stories from ministries who boldly went out to reconnect with some of their lapsed champions, but today I’d like to comment on something I think every ministry should have or be working on as part of their...
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A former boss once instructed all 20 of us in the development department to color a sheet she had copied from a Barbie coloring book. She then posted these, Andy-Warhol-style in the hallway of our development office.
In the scene, Barbie is daydreaming of what she will be when she grows up and guesses that a career as a fundraiser might be fun and easy—lots of fancy charity dinners to attend, friends to make, and all for a good cause!
(It was my unfortunate task to explain to our...
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When communicating our ministry’s God-given vision to our people, we must remember to communicate the Four P’s. Vision without the Four P’s will result in extreme frustration for our people.
The Four P’s come from a wonderful book that has sold over 400,000 copies. William Bridges wrote, Managing Transitions (Perseus Publishing, 1991, 2003). Go get it right HERE!
(1) We must communicate the Purpose behind our vision. Communicating purpose to our people means answering the question...
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