These are ‘half-thoughts’ I’ve been toting around in my head. I’m hoping others will comment/challenge… or use.

Colleges and Universities have been in something of an arms race and increased tuition at 6% - 7% annually.

Hard to maintain that pace forever unless what we’re seeing is a change to a completely different model.

I think funding [...]

This nugget comes from an email I prepared for a specific organization implementing a SALES process and SALES approach to funding. I think the points have a wide application - so I’m sharing here.

24-Hour Follow-Up Rule

We need to get out our follow-up emails/letters within 24 hours… no matter what. [...]

At a speech last week I did some word-association drills with a room full of nonprofit leaders, board members, funders and development officers.
First up: ‘Not-for-profit’
Word Associations: Do-gooders, charity, ‘looking for handouts’, untrustworthy, poor business, well-meaning, ‘always wanting money’.
Mind you, I was with a room full of people that classified themselves as nonprofit professionals. Someone [...]

Bill and Melinda Gates announced today that they are absolutely blown away with the Point of View and Thought Leadership of FOR IMPACT, and want to help. They have decided to dissolve the Gates Foundation, and personally deliver $10M checks to the 380 For Impact organizations that Tom, Nick and Kerry determine are the [...]

A few months ago I shared Tom’s poster on ‘How to Be a Social Entrepreneur’. A few times each week I receive emails asking if it would be okay to print and share.
Yes. Please print and share. We’ve also updated the file for those of you printing out at home - should [...]

Big birthday on the 19th. Been hiding out in Arizona reading and writing (and riding).
Here are 3 BIG (self-explanatory) IDEAS captured in these quotes.

1. “One PASSIONATE CHAMPION is worth 10 (100?) dis-passionate (dis-engaged) Board Members.”
Suddes… paraphrasing Po Bronson’s Fast Company article,
What Should I Do with My Life Now?

2. “Do one thing… and [...]

It’s really easy to lose the day/week/month/year putting out fires… or always RESPONDING.
I’ve been encouraging development officers to self-coach through these three questions EVERY morning BEFORE email – over a good cup of coffee.

What can I do to bring in more money today?
What am I doing to advance the ball with my top 10 prospects?
What [...]

(This was taken from an article in Ode magazine and excerpt from Mission, Inc.: The Practitioner’s Guide to Social Enterprise by Kevin Lynch and Julius Walls Jr.)
The authors talk about Jeffrey Hollander, Founder and CEO of Seventh Generation, a $100M firm that is into green cleaners, laundry detergent, dishwashing soap, etc.; and about his relationship [...]

(This was taken from an article in Ode magazine and excerpt from Mission, Inc.: The Practitioner’s Guide to Social Enterprise by Kevin Lynch and Julius Walls Jr.)
“The job of the social entrepreneur is to make sure your enterprise lives to fight another day. Do this enough days in a row, with the power of [...]

This was an interesting sidebar in Ode magazines article about Social Entrepreneurism. It’s taken from a book called Mission Inc.: The Practitioner’s Guide to Social Enterprise by Kevin Lynch and Julius Walls Jr. I haven’t read it but I just ordered it.
The first of the three (love the number) not so easy steps:
Step [...]

I love skimming an eclectic mix of magazines for relevant FOR IMPACT thinking. I particularly love Letters from the Editor.
This month’s (March 2009) ODE Magazine (Tagline: For Intelligent Optimists) has a particularly compelling insight from Jurriaan Kamp. Kamp’s title is APPLES & ENTREPRENEURS.
What do the terms “ORGANIC APPLES” and “SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS” have in common?
Kamp says [...]

Synchronicity. Karma. Serendipity.
I’m doing some work with the Goodwill Industries in Denver. They’ve become one of my “favorite” For Impact organizations for a number of reasons. They were a ’social enterprise’ 100 years before it became fashionable. They make money in their Retail Operation, and use it for incredibly [...]

I am constantly reminded (every day, every week, every coaching, every training) of the simple power of JUST ASK!
This economic maelstrom that we’re in actually makes this concept even more IMPORTANT, RELEVANT…
Post these 7 words EVERYWHERE… office, car, calendar, journal, bathroom mirror, (tattoo?):
JUST VISIT. JUST ASK. JUST [...]

We had a ‘guest’ instructor at yoga ‘practice’ last night. Part way through, she had a great line about focus, breathing, BE-ing in the moment: “Remember, we are human BE-ings, not human DO-ings.“
‘Life’ and ‘work’ are hectic, but this is a simple reminder to LIVE and BE.
Seems like we’re always encouraging you to [...]

And I think that’s a problem. Don’t you?
Maybe an org was founded by a passionate person with a grand vision 25 years ago. Now the M.O. appears to be meeting the operating budget or finding the next grant.
Why do you [org] exist? We don’t return to this question often enough - if [...]

Nick has shared with you some things about an A.F.E. – an ACTION-FORCING EVENT. In the last two weeks, it hit me, again, how powerful this really is. Here are 3 quick bullets and a bonus.

1. PREDISPOSITION!!! If you’re on the For Impact Platform, you know that this is a big, big deal [...]

We are in the Aloha state all week working with different organizations. Yesterday we had the good fortune to be with Keiki O Ka Aina (Children of the Land). The team is doing amazing work to transform education and transform Hawaii — impacting thousands families each year.
To the entire team at KOKA - [...]

I think the Standford Social Innovation review is improving - markedly. When it first launched I thought the brand and concepts were strong but articles were way too academic/theoretical — as a ‘field guy’ I didn’t relate much. I’m starting to come back in to the fold. Thought this was a really [...]

Some of you know Tom and I have been assembling an Online Learning Center. We’ve been testing this with dozens of users over the past year. The most valuable tool continues to be the role play videos. At each boot camp we film ourselves making a real ask - putting into [...]

A great piece in The Observer (Notre Dame Newspaper) about Tom’s 40-year history with the Notre Dame boxing program. Tom has been coaching for 35+ years and was a student boxer before that. Notre Dame has the only intramural boxing program in the country - aside from the service academies. (I think [...]

I just happen to catch an article by Tom Hayes and Michael Malone in the Wall Street Journal. It reinforces a lot of things I’ve been reading about the absolute need for ENTREPRENEURS in these trying times.
Nowhere is this more important than within the Third Sector and the For Impact world. SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS [...]

Larry and Sergi, the Google guys, founded Google.org three years ago with the aim to have a greater impact on the world than google.com. They have the vision, clout and cash to be very innovative / far from ‘old-school’ in their approaches.
This week the head of Google.org, Dr. Larry Brilliant, is moving aside [...]

This month’s Inc. Magazine column (Surviving the Recession) from Norm Brodsky is required reading for any organization struggling right now due to the economy. Brodsky is a veteran entrepreneur who offers some fundamental advice.
Some gems from the article:

Know your math: How much do you need? It’s not enough to say, “We’re losing [...]

WHAT IF you didn’t read or listen to any more stories about the ‘economy’???
I’ve received numerous emails about the Wall Street Journal’s article on College Fund-Raising Outlook Darkens after Surge. Amidst the doom and gloom was a comment about this year being the worse since 1975.
That was the year we kicked off the CAMPAIGN [...]

I’ve never seen a strong fundraising board.
We’ve worked with colleges, national organizations, start-ups, orgs in every sector – and not seen it.
Maybe organizations with ’strong fundraising boards’ don’t need help so they don’t come to us. I think it’s more likely the case that they don’t exist.
This is important to understand. Many organizations [...]

I’ve been talking about this whole idea of REALLOCATION for such a long time that I felt it was almost turning into ‘harping’. (I wrote about Reallocation by Mitt Romney and Opportunities to Excel as two of my favorite examples.)
However, with this whole ‘ECONOMY’ thing having such a huge effect, I’m convinced now more [...]

“The best way to have a GOOD IDEA is to have a lot of ideas.”
-Linus Pauling
“One great INSIGHT is worth a thousand good ideas.”
-Phil Dusenberry
Marcus Buckingham, in his wonderful book called THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO KNOW, talks about a ‘CONTROLLING INSIGHT’.
He says, “For a ‘CONCEPT’ to go to a ‘CONTROLLING INSIGHT’, it must:
1. [...]

You just made a great visit… did you ask?

This morning one executive director answered, “Well, no. They [insert prospect] started talking about the economy and I just got uncomfortable.” Yesterday it was, “I can always get some fired up but then I don’t know how to get to the money.”

This list is [...]

The 19th Century French Economist Jean-Baptiste Say is almost always given credit for the first real definition of an entrepreneur:
ONE WHO SHIFTS RESOURCES OUT OF A LOWER AREA OF PRODUCTIVITY TO A HIGHER AREA OF PRODUCTIVITY AND GREATER YIELD (THEREBY) CREATING VALUE.
Webster says ENTREPRENEUR is a French word for ‘UNDERTAKES‘. (As a serial entrepreneur, [...]

I was just reminded again of the absolutely “brilliant” spot-on quote of W. Clement Stone:
“SALES are contingent on the ATTITUDE of the salesman – not the ATTITUDE of the PROSPECT.”
Nobody has demonstrated this more in the last couple of weeks than ForImpact’s own Nick Fellers and Derek Grosso. They’re working on a project for [...]

Ed Healy has been my life insurance agent for over 40 years. More importantly, he’s been a life-long friend and mentor. Here’s one of the lessons he taught me early on and one of the reasons I love being around him.

“You can tie an application to a dog and have him run through [...]

I’ve been re-reading some stuff by Julia Cameron, who is one of my favorite writers, authors, thinkers. (Her ARTIST’S WAY is one of my favorite books and favorite gifts.)
Julia shares a terrific quote from poet Theodore Roethke that fits perfectly into our focus on ENGAGEMENT!

“I LEARN by going where I have to GO.”

“Where you [...]

My good friend, Jim Mahoney, who runs one of the most impressive and impactful educational programs in the country (Battelle for Kids) has this saying on his calendar for today: You don’t fatten cattle by weighing them all the time.
It just struck me how much that ties into this whole idea of WHAT COUNTS, [...]

Right now is a great time to learn.
By many accounts we’re in the midst of ‘economic turmoil’ like most of us have not seen in our lifetime. Two ways to think about this.. For me /for us/ for our orgs this is all opportunity. We can learn things now that we couldn’t [...]

Congrats to Coach Pat Summit!
1,000 WINS. 100% GRADUATION RATE.
Referencing her young and inexperienced current team, she said the GOAL is still the same: The Final Four.
“I think if you’ve got a VISION, you have to talk about the VISION. We have VISION, and that’s where we want to be.”
Great ‘language’ for all [...]

I was reading Leader to Leader early this morning. (Terrific magazine coming from the Leader to Leader Institute, formerly Drucker Foundation.)
James Champy of RE-ENGINEERING fame had a great line about the real leadership companies:
“A BUDGET IS NEVER AN EXCUSE FOR INACTION.”
He talks about how ENTREPRENEURIAL organizations never use their budget as an excuse; while [...]

“Not everything that counts can be counted.
And, not everything that can be counted, counts.”
This is a sign that reportedly hung in Albert Einstein’s office at Princeton.
(It’s one of the great little nuggets from Dan Pallotta’s book UNCHARITABLE. Much more on this later.)
I just want to make this a short and simple reminder that [...]

The word ‘February’ comes from the Latin word februum (purification), named for a Roman Cleansing Festival that was held each year on the 15th of the month.
In January, we BEGAN our Year of Engagement. We set GOALS. We are Re-Designing and Re-Imagining and Re-Energizing our organization and our operations.
February is a great time [...]

Whatever is lost with speed is more than made up for by speed.
- I was going to write more but wanted to get this thought out

I hope you have all now seen or read one of Nick and my absolute favorite quotes by Andy Grove:
“ENGAGE. THEN PLAN.”
We’ve been astounded over the years by how many people PLAN, PLAN, PLAN… RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH… CULTIVATE, CULTIVATE, CULTIVATE…
and never ENGAGE!
*Remember, ENGAGE = VISIT = PRESENT = JUST ASK!
Perhaps these two quotes by a [...]

I don’t read a lot of ‘fundraising blogs’. Most of my blog list includes sifting through entrepreneurs, business builders, innovators and designers…
Brad Feld is a fun funder/tech entrepreneur/cool guy in Colorado to read @ feld.com. He directed me to 2-Speed (Will Herman) and this post: Remain Aggressive. You need to read this [...]

NETWORK MARKETING. You may not know much about this Business Model. (Even if you do, you might have the poor perception of a Ponzi/Pyramid Scheme.)
The truth is that NETWORK MARKETING is a model much like DEVELOPMENT FUNDING in the THIRD SECTOR.
It’s ALL about RELATIONSHIPS. PROSPECTS. PRESENTATIONS. INDEPENDENT ENTREPRENEURS (running their own business). LIFE BALANCE. Etc.
The [...]

January, the month, is named after Janus, God of All Beginnings. In 153 B.C., January replaced March as the first month of the Roman calendar. And, some citizen of Rome came up with the first NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION.
We’ve been setting… and then breaking… these resolutions for over 2000 years!
I read something from Michael [...]

I’m up at Notre Dame doing my ‘boxing coach’ thing. Hard to believe it’s my 40th year of involvement with the Bengal Bouts.

This year marks the 79th Annual Tournament, which has grown to 225+ boxers and 4 nights of fights, with all the proceeds ($75,000+) going to the Holy Cross Missions in Bangladesh. [...]

If an investor is giving you 1x in response to a mail campaign, any sort of an event or ‘totally unsolicited’ then he or she would likely give 10x in response to a one-on-one (personal) visit-with-an-ask and 50x if the visit includes a dialogue around the funding plan (as part of the full case-for-support and [...]

This is an excerpt from an email I just fired off to one of last week’s boot camp attendees. Her organization has a $5M operating budget - mostly covered by government funds. They are ‘new to fundraising’. I’ve encouraged them to focus on the process of making visits — to get the [...]

I’ve been living ‘in the field’ for the past few months. Here are a few thoughts on the economy and some stories about how we’re responding.

Massive Action

This is a Tony Robbins principle. Basically, do what works and do a ton of it – massive action and you will be [...]

Last night we wrapped up at our first day on the campus at The University of San Diego. It was great but I think the weather was even better. While much of the country is being hit by an Alberta Clipper and frigid temps we are having a heat wave - mid 80’s [...]

I’ve just used this simple, powerful ENGAGEMENT MATH with two great coaching clients. It’s so powerful that I wanted to share it with everyone. I actually think you can make it work (certainly in principle) no matter the size of the organization.

167 VISITS
(15/Month for 11 Months… 30+ Visits/Month for 6 Months…
55 Visits/Month for [...]

Friend and brilliant thinker, Jim Mahoney, has this quote on his calendar for January 12th.
“Some people miss their MESSAGE because they’re too busy checking the SPELLING.”
Getting your MESSAGE out (ENGAGE) is the important thing. If there’s a ‘misspelling’, it’s covered because of the ‘DRAFT’… and the fact that you’re ‘PRACTICING’!