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Trust me, I'm a Fundraiser: How to Respond to the Eroding Confidence in the Sector

Writing at Professional Fundraising, Steve Andrews looks at an issue that's been of great interest to me for many years: Confidence in the sector is falling. What can fundraisers do? I appreciate that he doesn't shy away from this issue or treat it as strictly a messaging problem, the way so many people do. While I don't think he takes this matter nearly as far as it needs to be taken, he does have five meaningful suggestions that can be put to use by fundraising professionals: (1) Up front transparency. (2) Explain your motives, especially those related to money. (3) Stop sending mail to dead people and to people’s old addresses. (4) Develop tangible programmes for people to give to. (5) Use third party endorsements, such as teams of donors reporting to other donors. Posted: 9/23/08; 5:22:17 PM #

Nonprofit Online Classifieds: Free Ads Without Mailings through 2008
	Now that we have officially shut down Nonprofit Online Classifieds as a fee based service and ended the related mailings to our subscribers, I want to let you know that the site will continue to support Free Ads Without Mailings through the end of 2008, subject to approval. Posted: 9/23/08; 5:15:31 PM #

Resource Kit For Creative Community Engagement

The Australian Flexible Learning Framework has published a web-based Resource Kit For Creative Community Engagement, which is effectively a compilation of materials for e-learning on a shoestring. The site is divided into Planning, Tech & Tools, Activities, Case Studies, Networks & Mentors, and Useful Links. The longer I explore this wonderful compendium, the more useful stuff it turns up, so I suggest that you just keep clicking. I recommend this to most small and medium sized organizations and certainly any community based group. Posted: 9/23/08; 5:12:00 PM #

America 101, by Eric Lane in Democracy: A Journal of Ideas

I tend to think that nonprofits spend too much time figuring out how to squeeze another ask out of their fundraising list and too little time figuring out whether the fundamental underpinnings of their work are eroding. In America 101 Eric Lane looks at how desperately we in the U.S. need some basic civics lessons. Most organizations have spent the last eight years acting like the assault on civil society didn't concern them and so, as much as I agree with Mr. Lane, I fear it may already be too late. Posted: 9/23/08; 5:03:16 PM #