Things that work

Here’s post #3 in a connected series of events.
First, I wrote a post about trust which, from what I saw and heard (traffic, comments, feedback) was well-received.  Then, connected to that post, I received a totally unexpected gift from a friend, which itself generated another post about delight, and I spent most of Friday on [...]

Trust

Glenn Urban at MIT teaches us about the importance of the power of trust.  Glenn observes, as have many others, that we have shifted from a mass-media, high promotion world (that effectively ended at the start of this decade) to one focused on relationships and two-way communications.  In this new world, the single most important [...]

What does the financial meltdown have to do with raising money?

What have I found most surprising about raising money for a nonprofit?  It’s that, when seen on the spectrum of “objective decisions” v. “relationships and trust,” most philanthropic decisions are made based on relationships and trust.
This shouldn’t be too surprising, but it belies the (appropriate) emphasis on measurement and impact assessment that is so preoccupies [...]