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It’s not your grandma’s telefundraising anymore!

When I talk to younger fundraisers, they often say: “Why would I use the phone? I never answer it.”  Not surprising –  they’re just like our sons, who are now 29 and 31 years old. But herein lies the problem. What you as a (young) person may think to be true may not actually be…

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News Flash— Direct Mail and Print Not Dead

Technology isn’t killing direct mail… It’s making it more efficient, cheaper and adding new options to the game. So before you ring the bell to bring out your dead direct mail programs, take a step back, breathe and ask yourself: how can I take advantage of all this? If you missed the DMAW Production Strategies…

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From Sacred Cows to Successful Campaigns — Real Life Victories

What happens after you tip your sacred cows?  In our previous blogs (one and two), we discussed how to identify your nonprofit’s specific sacred cows — those programs, events, campaigns, and practices that you perform religiously, often because that’s the way it’s always been done. Or sometimes our sacred cows are programs that represent too…

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Identifying the Sacred Cows That Are Holding You Back

Let’s say you’re committed to tipping some sacred cows. You are ready to challenge and evaluate everything: your mission, your approach, your revenue. How do you identify your organization’s specific sacred cows? In our first blog of this series, we discussed the various fundraising practices nonprofits perform religiously — often with the only strategy being…

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How Do You Tip a Sacred Cow? Strength and Patience.

Einstein defined insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” We all tend to agree with this — but do we as nonprofits put it into practice? Particularly in our fundraising work? Echoing this same sentiment, management expert Tom Northrup once said, “All organizations are perfectly designed to get…

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Winning a political campaign, landing a new job… it’s all about the data

The biggest challenge to anyone’s effort to get elected is similar to that faced by everyone seeking a job:  Somebody else wants the same job.  In this event, the best laid campaign plans often help, but in the end, things frequently become much messier than initially expected (see: Election 2016 Presidential Polls).  What happens if…

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