Fundraising

As a bittersweet moment, this is my last post on this blog, for I'm leaving Aspiration to start my PhD in Nonprofit Leadership at the University of San Diego. I'll be hosting future Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants on my new Nonprofit Leadership 601 blog.

Thanks to all those who provided blog submissions this week!

I learned traditional fundraising methods during my Masters degree and from the many workshops I've attended over the years.  The one thing I remember the most from these seminars is--nonprofits need to diversify their funding sources and not to rely too much on one source of funding. However, my personal experiences in organizations have taught me quite the opposite.

In the first organization I worked for, we relied solely on individual donors.

In another organization, we relied solely on Foundation grants.

June 27th, 2007 12-1PM.

Join us for an interactive Nonprofit Operations Brown Bag Lunch discussion about fundraising administration.

We'll be discussing best practices for maintaining a fundraising calendar, grant templates, correspondence with funders, and organizing your fundraising files. We'll also be sharing sample fundraising administration practices. Notes from this discussion can be found on the Nonprofit Operations Wiki.

I'm hosting the blog carnival nonprofit consultants this week; however postings were few--possibly due to spring break? So, I decided to pull some great posts from other bloggers in the sector.

1. Ken Goldstein of the Nonprofit Consultant blog has a great post this week about the importance of having nonprofits using an emotional hook in a fundraising pitch and/or proposal.

I recently learned that CompassPoint hired a new Executive Director--Jeanne Bell. I don't know Jeanne personally, but know of her because she wrote a book that I use all the time called, "Financial Leadership for Nonprofit Executives." I wish Jeanne the best of luck in her new position!

Aspiration's leadership team met a couple of days ago to discuss and update our fundraising strategy for the year. We divided the meeting into three fundraising strategy areas.

1. Individual Donors

2. Corporate Funding/Events Sponsorship

3. Foundation Funding

We are following a different strategy for each fundraising area. If you are new to fundraising or need a refresher course, here's a brief description of each fundraising area.

1. Individual Donors: