Monthly Archives: July 2012

What do you know?

Posted on July 31, 2012 by

“Who are you to be spouting all of these ideas?” “What do you really know about this?” “You’re not an expert.” “There’s nothing new here.” “Who cares what you think, really?” And on and on. No, that’s not what your … Continue reading →

Posted in Linchpin | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Not transactional

Posted on July 27, 2012 by

Of course no one says that they have a transactional approach to fundraising. How could you admit to such a thing? But to get beyond transactions means that donors are not numbers to you. It means that after people give … Continue reading →

Posted in fundraising | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Your chance to shape a sector

Posted on July 25, 2012 by

Kevin Starr, who among other things runs the Mulago Foundation, penned a provocative, must-read series of posts on Stanford Social Innovation Review titled “The Problem with Impact investing (Pt. 1, Pt. 2, and Pt. 3). He leads off his last … Continue reading →

Posted in Acumen Fund | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

One great moment in a 24 hour delay

Posted on July 18, 2012 by

I’d love to chalk it up to bad luck – I continually have things go wildly wrong most of the times that I fly Delta. Here’s what happened this time: for an 8:30pm flight to Accra, Ghana, we dutifully boarded … Continue reading →

Posted in Connection | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Note to left-brainers

Posted on July 13, 2012 by

It’s not helpful, ever, when asked for your input to list three or 10 or 20 things that need to be fixed without mentioning a single thing that is great. I say this with humility as this isn’t a strength … Continue reading →

Posted in excellence | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Systems and caring

Posted on July 12, 2012 by

Do you have a system in place that helps you let your customers (donors) let you know that you care? What I see more often is that people either: Care about customers (donors) but don’t have a system Have a … Continue reading →

Posted in relationships | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Autreat signal badges

Posted on July 10, 2012 by

I was thinking some more about how often we miss the opportunity to help the people we bring together connect with each other.  Then I heard about Autreat, a a conference run by and for people with autism.  As one … Continue reading →

Posted in Conferences | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Metric

Posted on July 4, 2012 by

What’s your current count of (subsequently) horrendous ideas that you actually tried make happen? If it’s zero, what are the chances that you’re thinking big enough?

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Finding the line

Posted on July 3, 2012 by

A friend of mine, a great salesman, was giving advice to a colleague of mine who was new to fundraising. His suggestion: if you don’t get thrown out of at least one meeting in your first year you’re not being … Continue reading →

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