I’ve been talking with a lot of people and organizations on this whole ENGAGE thing, especially as it relates to the ECONOMY.
Not everyone is hiding under their desks waiting for some magic, 5,000 point leap in the Dow. But, I believe everyone is struggling with how to deal with the seeming dichotomy (conundrum) of [...]

If you ENGAGE, visit, get shoulder-to-shoulder this week with 3 of your best and most Qualified Prospects/Potential Investors… it changes the game!

We hope you had a great holiday and that you are ready to make 2009 your best year ever.
Of all the possible ‘resolutions’ you could make for 2009, Nick and I believe the one that will have the most IMPACT is to simply ENGAGE!!!
Make 2009 your YEAR OF ENGAGEMENT.
To help you get going, we have [...]

I spent some time talking to an ED this morning. We really focused on thinking about development = RELATIONSHIPS.
Historically, this organization ‘turns over’ relationships to the development officer once they’re ‘ready for funding’. It doesn’t working that way. Funding (at a higher level - sales) is not a step or moment in [...]

A new year and a new list of teleseminars…
We have four teleseminars this month. These are our short bursts of live and free learning. They’re a way for us to share the For Impact message while providing funding boot camp alums and newsletter readers with meaningful instruction, ideas and reinforcement.
Up this month:
All seminars at 1:00 [...]

Every year-end I make a list of 100 memories from the year. These could be events, moments, firsts, lasts, etc. etc.

It’s a great way to reflect on the year and prepare for the next.

This tradition was inspired by Michael Gelb’s How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci. He says one of Leo’s brainstorming [...]

Gentle holiday/year-end reminder: Make a LIFE, not a LIVING. Enjoy this wonderful time of the year with your family and friends. Take the time off to renew and re-energize. Come back at the first of the year with a commitment. Make 2009 your YEAR OF ENGAGEMENT!!! (More to follow.)

I first used this concept in 1984 on an Economic Development effort in Akron, Ohio. (I still have my little cheat sheet). The leadership had been told by all the other ‘consulting firms’ that they could maybe raise $1.5 Million, at the most. My brother John and I walked into the board and asked them [...]

A PHARM (rep) ATTITUDE: Visits. Presentations. Just Ask.
A FARM (farmer) ATTITUDE: Cultivate. Spread Manure. Hope.
You’re in sales. Get over it.

I did six training/coaching sessions in eight days. (The Diocese, a large Goodwill organization, Association of Independent Camps, a College, a YMCA and a For Impact Training Camp).

The BIG, BIG, BIG STUFF (that we sometimes forget) is so ridiculously SIMPLE, but incredibly powerful/impactful.

*These are pretty much in their order of their appearance.

You get what [...]

Tom and I spend a good deal of time on the road traveling to just about every city in the U.S. Three times in the past week I’ve been talking to clients who have asked for travel tips. It never occurred to me that large part of our community travels and can benefit [...]

In October Tom lead a teleconference on funding : Now More than Ever. It was in direct response to ‘the bailout’ and worries about a recession. We turned that into a board package with audio and transcript. The books quickly sold out.
We have a second printing — you can order below. [...]

Martin Luther King Said,
“I HAVE A DREAM.”
He didn’t say,
“I HAVE A STRATEGIC PLAN.”
Then, Andy Grove said,
“ENGAGE. THEN PLAN.”
Then, Goose said to Maverick,
“ENGAGE, MAV, ENGAGE!!!”
This is our For Impact Challenge to you for 2009:
ENGAGE!!!

Lately, I’ve been having something of identity crisis with respect to ‘social entrepreneurs’ and ‘for impact leaders’. A consensus definition is forming that a social entrepreneur includes using some sort of earned-income model. Moreover, I see a general attitude from those consensus circles that fundraising/philanthropy is somehow ineffective or even, in some cases, [...]

Malcolm Gladwell, of TIPPING POINT and BLINK fame, writes an interesting book (Outliers: The Storry of Success) on what separates the ‘highly successful’ from everyone else.

Here are his five steps to SUCCESS:

Find MEANING and INSPIRATION in your work. (That’s easy if you’re working at a For Impact Organization!)

Work hard. (That seems to be [...]

This seminar covers how to build your funding plan / resource-development plan. You can see the description below but here’s my short and sweet summary: It will help you move from hope toward clarity. We’re going to talk about concrete examples and how-to to turn-on or re-vamp your development plan.
In this seminar [...]

Last week’s Barron’s weekly magazine featured a story on the New Faces of Philanthropy. It’s a look at Gen X and younger/generational philanthropists (’Next-Gen Givers’).
The article is worth a read if only for this excerpt (my bold caps):
These younger givers—entrepreneurs, executives and latter-day members of old-money clans—are intent on leaving a mark now, not [...]

A lot of ‘NONPROFITS’ are desperately trying to attain ‘SUSTAINABILITY’.

“If we just had an ENDOWMENT that covered all of our operating expenses, we wouldn’t have to do that (dirty) FUNDRAISING thing anymore.”
What if, instead, you stopped worrying about ‘SUSTAINABILITY’… and started putting yourself out of business! Find SOLUTIONS to the PROBLEM, and then [...]

Jay Lowden, Vice President of Development at the YMCA’s in the Pikes Peak Region, just received the ‘OUTSTANDING SUPERSTAR’ award from Colorado Springs AFP. It was well deserved.
During his acceptance, he shared these 5 Rules. If you’re a For Impact follower, you’ll know right away why I LOVE these ‘RULES’. Jay’s rules [...]

I’m on a west coast this trip, meeting with and working with several organizations. This morning, I’m having coffee with the leadership from an organization that has been prepping for a $75M campaign for three years. The org was ready to ‘launch’ and then decided to hold citing ‘the economy’. They were [...]

It’s that time of year to give THANKS, and Nick and I appreciate our ongoing opportunity to share a Thanksgiving Message with you.
3 Things to Think about this Thanksgiving:

“WEALTH IS AN ABUNDANCE OF THINGS THAT WE VALUE.”
My favorite (and the best) definition of Wealth. Everything that we (should) [...]

We’re asked to talk about ‘trends in philanthropy’ or ‘trends in fundraising’ which troubles me because the social sector needs more discussion about fundamentals – not trends. If you ask me to talk about ‘trends’ I will use this as a lens to highlight the lack of fundamentals – think of it as [...]

Join us in San Diego, New York or Ohio (at our Headquarters). In two days we teach you how to apply For Impact ideas giving you the time, clarity and confidence to transform your organization!
The For Impact Funding Boot Camp (Info, Registration & Testimonials) has become our way to share frameworks and practices with you [...]

Marc Pitman/fundraisingcoach.com directed us to Wordle.net in a pretty cool post about message. The power of a simple and visual message cannot be overstated. Using Wordle, you can upload text, a webpage or letter and it creates a visual word cloud on-the-fly.
Uploading all the posts at forimpact.org produces this visual

This is similar New [...]

THE OTHER SIDE OF FEAR IS COURAGE.
The other end of Wall Street connects with millions of better roads, all leading from the stink of greed and billion dollar bankruptcies. If it was all just a casino, where were the complimentary cocktails? Metal is our currency. Its value is on the rise, even [...]

On October 3 we weighed in on the economy. This was during the height of the talks about “the first bailout”. We were receiving dozens of calls and emails every day about how to respond to the economy. Message, archived audio and printed packages available here.
Message synopsis: Get out and visit with your [...]

My friend Tim Kight calls this the ‘R FACTOR’.
Everything is about your RESPONSE to the event, the situation or the activity… not the event itself.
Tons of books on this. Thought it needed to get out in Kight’s wonderfully simple equation.

This comes from one of my favorite authors Jim Loehr and is captured on the cover of his book, THE POWER OF FULL ENGAGEMENT. Everybody knows about the RETURN ON INVESTMENT. Very few people understand RETURN ON ENERGY.

Managing your ENERGY includes figuring out when you are most productive (early a.m. for most people) [...]

Tom is the ultimate aggregator. He collects (even more: he remembers) every quote or phrase from hundreds of books and years of reading. A few years back he created this poster (inspired by the works Sami Sunchild) that aggregates many thoughts about How To Be A Social Entrepreneur.
Download the PDF or give 1 [...]

For those that are registered for today’s seminar on The Million Dollar Ask. You can download call notes here.
In this seminar we cover HOW to make a major gift call on your top prospects.
It will give strategies for how to identify and get to your prospects.
It will also focus on the mechanics of the [...]

The Encore Generation is one of those phrases like Tipping Point or The World is Flat. It’s sticky, captures a huge concept and has real staying power.

This phrase comes from Wilford Welch and Tactics for Hope: How Social Entrepreneurs are Changing the World. The book is strong bid but this one small nugget [...]

I’m sick of ‘meetings‘. And I’m at an age where I can ‘just SAY no’.

Political pundit James Carville says,

“LOSERS MEET. WINNERS DO.”

He goes on to say that, “Absent a major peace negotiation, complicated merger or complex legal settlement, there’s no reason on earth to have a meeting last more 30 MINUTES.”

After 35 [...]

I spent the morning yesterday facilitating a Board Retreat for an incredibly impactful organization.

I wanted to share with you 3 big takeaways, as well as the ‘SIMPLE’ PROGRESSION of how they can raise significantly more money (INCOME) to affect their IMPACT.

Takeaway #1: Moving from a WHO model to a WHY model. A very [...]

I was with Dick Celeste and Steve Elder at Colorado College last week. (It reminded me that they are still two of the ‘coolest’ dudes around.) Steve took me on a tour of the new Edith Kinney Gaylord Cornerstone Arts Center. It absolutely knocked my proverbial socks off! It’s a Predock [...]

We had a great seminar today - lots of participation and discussion around a relationship-based funding model and how to build your funding strategy and funding plan. Some teleseminars are live only (not archived). Others are archived. We’re going to archive this for three days only then move it over to the [...]

Change can be difficult. A lot of the organizations we work with are 40, 50 or even 100 years old. Speaking openly and broadly to those organizations looking to make a change or transform, I would give the following advice:

Make Visits: This is pretty simple. It doesn’t say make a leap [...]

Napkin notes are remainder ideas/links, one-liners and chicken-scratch insights that haven’t been fully developed (yet).

Started reading tacticalphilanthropy.com this week. Great design, insights - had not heard of the website before.

A message is not what you say. It’s what someone hears…

Been speaking at a lot of AFP’s. I’m starting to think of the [...]

Yesterday, Tom was in Colorado Springs speaking to the AFP with Robbert Egger about Change. Today, I’m at AFP in NW Ohio talking about more of the same. However, I think Tom had more gumption. He put together an entire e-book on change
Change (the) Rules (DRAFT) includes all the ‘no-mores’, [...]

Last week I re-posted ‘stop being a not-for-profit‘. This week I want to re-post another one of the posts from the ‘way back’ (first composed in 1998 and revised several times since then).
Change Your Vocabulary
If you get the whole change in thinking from ‘not-for-profit’ to ‘for-impact’ then here are several other CHANGES to help [...]

Check out this tool at nytimes.com. Choose one word (not six) to describe your feeling.
I wanted to share for three reasons:

Really cool
This reflects a methodology you can follow to build your message (sans technology). Ask everyone to pick 1-3 words that describe your impact. Aggregate and simplify to identify THE BIG WORDS.
Power [...]

If you’re registered to join us for today’s teleseminar on ‘How to Get the Visit’ (sold out), you can join the online discussion here.
Post questions and comments during and after the seminar.

Just finished Brain Rules, a terrific book by John Medina (cool website too). Since he is a Developmental Molecular Biologist and Director of the Brain Center for Applied Learning & Research at Seattle Pacific University, I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to understand anything that he wrote! He’s convinced me [...]

Frank Sullivan used to say that he spent 90% of his time SELLING HIMSELF… and 10% of his time selling his product.

As a “young pup”, I’ll never forget Frank telling me how, early in his career, he would go to a prospect and say, “This is my background. Some day I’m going to be [...]

Re: Frank, It may seem a little weird to talk about “PERSONAL GOALS” when you’re dealing with SALES or SALES GOALS. Frank Sullivan, however, was all about writing out ALL of his goals and plans… personal, financial, business, sales, etc.

Frank was literally the first person in my “business life” (and, actually, one of the [...]

Stop being a not-for-profit.
Why do we define our selves in the negative? It makes no sense. Does your organization exist to ‘not make any money’? Or, does it exist to save lives, change lives and impact lives?
Stop defining yourself by what you’re not. Start defining yourself by what you are for: [...]

A quick note to let you know we’ve just posted our fall teleseminar schedule. Teleseminars are quick bursts of high-level training and motivation designed to augment the W.O.W. Emails, website and training camps (all free).
First teleseminar is today (Wed Oct 29 @ 1:00PM ET). For the next eight weeks we’ll host seminars about:

Campaigns
For Impact Point [...]

Frank Sullivan believed there were five activities that every salesman must perform, in order of importance. They were:
1. ESTABLISH GOALS.
2. GET GOOD NAMES.
3. MAKE THE APPROACH.

4. MAKE THE PRESENTATION.

5. MAKE THE CUSTOMER A CLIENT.

Frank was a master at selling life insurance, which is certainly one of the most difficult “intangible product” sales. (This [...]

Today, Seth Godin highlighted: In Defense of Raising Money: a Manifesto for NonProfit CEOs. Authored by Sasha Dichter, Director of Business Development for Acumen.
The manifesto is five pages long and only takes a few worthwhile minutes to read.
Read the piece. My commentary (an attempt at adding value) is below.
 

“People think that asking for money [...]

Since we’re all in SALES (and we need to get over it), I’m going to share with you a SALES NUGGET every day this week.

These five nuggets come from Frank Sullivan, who was my first mentor and perhaps the best life insurance salesman in the world. A Trustee at Notre Dame and [...]

In my experience, maybe 1 out of 40 prospects will be completely irrational. He or she will ask off-the-wall questions – to which ‘coming out of left field’ would be an understatement. The prospect may even appear to be apathetic toward making a difference (at all/ever)… or maybe on a power trip. [...]