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Attention

A lot of people are thinking very hard these days about the subject of attention. Usually, this is from the perspective of organizations competing for the attention of their stakeholders. In his Guru's Handbook article on Attention, Asher Bey looks at the topic from the perspective of the teacher: As someone with something to offer others, how are you husbanding your most precious resource? I think this lesson applies to teachers of all kinds, whether they are found in the classroom or in the public arena. Posted: 7/10/07; 5:05:29 PM #

The Silver Plate

There has been a lot of hand waving going on for years now, in regard to the promises of online fundraising. In The Silver Plate, Gavin Clabaugh takes issue with the blanket promise being made by a lot of firms and consultants that money raised online is "growing the pie", rather than money that might have been given offline. I appreciate his critique. Online donors don't just materialize out of thin air, as much as we may want them too. And frankly, I think the best development programs are the ones that put themselves out of business, rather than waiting for someone else to do it for them. At the same time, I think the lower communication costs of online fundraising allows both better margins and substantially more effective cultivation. The latter, as I've written elsewhere, has the potential to be revolutionary, rather than just more efficient. Until then, all other things being equal, we are probably mostly moving people from one medium to another. Posted: 7/10/07; 5:05:22 PM #