Original passion

I recently came back from a weeklong trip to Europe and was swapping stories with my wife about the week. She admitted what I already knew, that my five-year-old son has started to really notice my absence when I travel for work.
“But,” she said, “It’s actually really easy to explain to him why you’re away.  [...]

Is “fundraising” a dirty word?

Continuing yesterday’s thread, I think we might need a new job title.  “Fundraising” is stigmatized – it sounds transaction-y and narrow and kind of like something you don’t want to do.  (If there’s a job out there that no one can fill, then I probably don’t want it, right?)  “Development” is not so great either [...]

Jeff Immelt was a sales guy

Jeff Immelt, the CEO of GE, was a sales guy.  So was Sam Palmisano, CEO of IBM, and Steve Ballmer at Microsoft.  In fact, Steve Ballmer started in sales at Proctor and Gamble, selling something called the “Coldsnap Freezer Dessert Maker.”   Better yet, while selling the Coldsnap, Steve shared an office with Jeff Immelt, another [...]

The question I used to hate

For a long time, when interviewing for jobs that I was supposed to want, I prayed that I wouldn’t be asked, “Why do you want to work here?” Because often I didn’t have a clue why I wanted the job.  It often wasn’t my passion.
Now I find myself answering this question nearly every day [...]

The fundraising forward bend

I’ve been wondering about why “the ask” for philanthropic funding can be the hardest, most awkward point in the meeting.  Here are some thoughts from somewhere else entirely…
Try this experiment: bend at your waist and, in a relaxed fashion, try to touch your toes (or however close you happen to get, it doesn’t matter).   Then, [...]

Raising investment capital…that ought’a be easy

I was speaking today to the executive director of a small and growing NGO that’s in the grant-giving business – they’re interested in getting into the loan-giving business.
I asked him why they wanted to make the shift, and he explained: to create a sustainable revenue stream; to create more accountability on the part of the [...]

The simplest nonprofit ven diagram ever

I presented today to an amazing group of 30+ summer interns and new hires who are about to start working for Acumen Fund, E+Co, Root Capital, Agora, IGNIA and Endeavor – all organizations that are supporting entrepreneurship in the developing world to promote economic development and poverty alleviation.  The training was organized by the Aspen [...]

Call it out

I recently went out to a nice birthday dinner at a new TriBeCa restaurant in New York City.  It’s been open for about a month, and while the food is delicious, the service is still finding its way.  Our waiter was friendly enough, but he would disappear for swaths of time.  At one point, we [...]

The one thing you need to know before launching a nonprofit

I was on a phone call today with a number of young people who are interested in working in the social enterprise space, and the question arose, “What advice would you give to someone who is interesting in launching a social venture?”
The answer is: figure out how you’re going to fund this thing.  Without that, [...]

A ’sustainable’ revenue stream?

Hats off to Nell Edgington at the Social Velocity blog for a post titled “The Critical Alignment of Mission, Money and Competence,” which kicked off an interesting conversation between Nell, me, Sean Stannard-Stockton who writes the Tactical Philanthropy blog, Nathanial Whittmore who writes the Social Entrepreneurship blog for Change.org, and Kjerstin Erickson, the CEO of [...]