NonProfit News That Matters

Welcome to our NonProfit News That Matters Blog.  Here at Goettler Associates, we are continuously watching developments in the philanthropic marketplace, reviewing new research studies, reading trade publications, and scouring industry blogs. The quantity of available information is a little overwhelming at times, so we though we’d help our friends and colleagues along by sharing the NonProfit News That Matters most.

Let us know what you think, join the conversation.


Category: Opinion

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Covid-19: Reopening with Resilience, Realism & Trust

Category: News & Information
Memorial Day – the traditional beginning of summer – looked like no other this year.  But with it came the news that, in many parts of the country, people began to look at the gradual reopening of our economy.  Somehow the word “reopening” is too facile a term to adequately describe what we have all endured. . .perhaps re-emergen...

Covid-19 Week 10: How to Make It Easier

Category: News & Information
Welcome to Week 10 of our Covid-19 fundraising blog.  When this all started, we didn’t realize that we’d be at it for ten weeks.  Writing a weekly blog is harder than we first imagined.  Life is like that sometimes. How to Make Fundraising Easier Saying you are going to do something is often easier than actually doing it....

Covid-19 Week 9: Don’t Jump to Conclusions

Category: News & Information
Don’t jump to conclusions based on the spate of donor surveys that are starting to surface, and attempting to gauge the effects of coronavirus on the future behavior of donors.  The results are at best inconclusive, and at worst alarming.  Don't Jump to Conclusions: with donor surveys predicting doom and gloom Take, for instance...

Week 7: Living with Covid-19 and Not Knowing

Category: News & Information
It is week seven of the great shutdown and there is still so much that we don’t know.  We ended our post last week with the acknowledgement that we don’t know, but we were going to find out.  Well, having spent some time thinking about it, knowing is difficult to achieve.  We all believe we know certain things.  Many of us ...

Covid-19 Week 6: Lessons Learned

Category: News & Information
Raise your hand if you know more about the Spanish Flu of 1918 than you ever dreamt you would.  If “goodbye” has been replaced by “stay safe and stay healthy.” If you have grown weary of the phrase “Don’t let a good crisis go to waste” or some variation thereof.  What else have we learned these past weeks? Covid-19 Fundr...

Covid-19 Week 5: Zoom in on better etiquette when video conferencing

Category: Marketing & Communications
Zoom in on better Etiquette It is the second day of week five in Covid-19 Fundraising, and like you we visited with family and friends over the past weekend via video conferencing to share Easter/Passover Holiday greetings.  We’ve also been using Zoom for virtual happy hour with friends and colleagues over these past weeks, and it is bec...

Covid-19 Week 3: Working Through the Stages of Change

Category: News & Information
Managing the Stages of Change in the Covid-19 Age It is week three of Covid19 Fundraising, and we are starting to know more.  We now understand that we will have several more weeks of this new normal ahead.  We should be actively focused on working through the stages of grief and change and hopefully getting settled in to move our org...

Covid-19 Week 2: Shelter In Place and Seeking Balance

Category: News & Information
It is week 2 of Covid-19 Fundraising, and most all of us are now working remotely and struggling to maintain a focus on mission and purpose as well as to balance the pressures of our new work environments.  Are you finding your work hours are just as long?  Are you shifting your thoughts from thriving in the new year to just survive? ...

Hey Fundraisers, Let’s Roll …

Category: News & Information
Start today by looking after yourself and those who give you strength It's pretty hard to view the future of fundraising and our role as fundraisers when we are forced to work from home, but this recent post from the UK's digital fundraising guru Howard Lake gives us some sage advice for how we should face our work today. So, Hey Fundraisers! ...

Covid-19: What Should We Be Doing Now?

Category: News & Information
Communicate: with sincerity, purpose, and gratitude To assist out clients, colleagues and friends in this uncertain time of Covid-19, GoettlerAssociates is going to do what we believe our clients should be doing . . . communicating.  We are pleased to offer our take on the quickly changing development landscape, with this News That Matter...

What motivates philanthropy and giving in our society?

Category: News & Information
The question of donor motivation is a topic that most professional fundraisers have wrestled with, and a topic that most professionals probably have an opinion on.  In our decades of serving the third sector, we are more often inspired by the selfless generosity of donors than we are taken aback by egos and self promotion  Increasingly, we h...

What’s Your Number? …for donor retention

Category: News & Information
Do you know your donor retention numbers?  If you don't know your number, then you probably don't realize that all your hard work to acquire new donors is not having the impact on your organization that you thought it might.  Here is another, yes yet another, article on the importance of donor retention.  If you are not looking...

Donors are becoming more concerned with quantifiable outcomes

Category: News & Information
Our take-away from this article may be quite different from that of the typical reader at the Economist. This article is of interest because it articulates an evolving trend with a reportedly growing number of donors. A new generation of donors are now hyper-focused on demonstrable outcomes and results. Great! Understanding the needs of donors is ...

Leadership development tips for Fundraisers

Category: Fund Raising
Development Officers and Fundraisers are leaders.  Whether or not your job title and description list leadership as a requirement within your organizations - rest assured that volunteers, donors and other colleagues look to you as a leader.  That's why the headline of this article at the Harvard Business Review grabbed our interest.  Upon consid...

Sage Advice on Charity Golf Outings

Category: News & Information
I absolutely love this post from Guidestar by Tom King on the special event charity golf outings. This article quickly dispels many false claims about special events, helps to set some reasonable expectations of success, and emphasizes the importance of early planning.  Why is this article timely, as the summer season is winding down and we approa...

Start Planning Year-End Appeals Now

Category: News & Information
If you are not thinking strategically and planning for your year-end appeal now, rest assured that your competition is! This post at Forbes.com challenges development officers to rethink the herd-mentality that we see so often in our society today.  Mr. Watson also urges those of us engaged in philanthropy that "fundraising is competition, philant...

Similarities of Crowdfunding and Major Gift Pitfalls

Category: News & Information
It is interesting to observe the similarities of crowdfunding and major gift pitfalls.  This opinion piece highlights "crowdfunding fails" which in our experience are similar to a prescription for a failed capital or major gifts campaign.  Some of the terminology is a little different, but consider how a comparison between the importance of a vid...

Adopt a strengths-based approach to development . . .

Category: Opinion
The argument to adopt a strengths-based approach to leadership development is presented in this article from Forbes.com.  This approach is more than appropriate for nonprofit organizations, for the growth and advancement of staff, and for our own careers.  Our firm has adopted this approach to the advancement and improvement of an organization's ...

Sage Advice for Seeking Foundation Grants

Category: LinkedIn Articles
This is article offers sage advice for seeking foundation grants.  Too often in the rush of the development officers daily life, one can forget to take a step back to consider these grant writing guidelines and best practices. Questions I'm Most Often Asked about Winning Foundation Grants by Martin Teitel December 2013 In my decades of running...

Donors are happier, healthier and better looking too.

Category: LinkedIn Articles
Donors to charity aren't merely generous souls. Donors are happier, healthier and better looking too.  We celebrate National Philanthropy Day in Central Ohio today.  This opinion piece, by Arthur Brooks appearing in the Wall Street Journal, is an appropriate reminder of the truly exceptional impact that the Third Sector has on our country, our ...

Treat donors as shareholders to frame the major gifts equation

Category: LinkedIn Articles
Treat donors as shareholders to frame the major gifts equation around an investment analogy to develop a loyal base of givers.  Mr. Shaw has picked up on another aspect of this concept in his  article. Here is an opinion piece that we thought worthy of sharing. We might add two additional points:  1) considering donors as shareholders can be ver...

Everything Old is New Again in Fundraising

Category: News & Information
Everything Old is New Again in the fundraising industry.  We appreciate the perspective that Jay Frost expresses in this article, as he strikes a rational balance between respect for our industry's well-established best practices with the explosion and exuberance for fundraising with new social media techniques. Everything Old  is New Again by Ja...

Become A Better Listener by Maintaining Your Curiosity

Category: News & Information
Want to become a better listener? We found some sage advice in this article from Andrew Olsen (spotted on LinkedIn) that listening is in fact one of the most important skills that fund raisers must develop. We'd argue that fund raisers need to first maintain a genuine curiosity about people and what their interests are to become good listeners.  ...

About High Fundraising Costs: It’s Complicated

Category: News & Information
The following editorial about high fundraising costs appeared in the Chronicle of Philanthropy.  Excellent topic.  On a related issue and another one of our pet peeves is the nonprofit executive that suggests 100% of a donors gift will go directly to programs. . . . July 8, 2013 About High Fundraising Costs: It’s Complicated By Jeff Schreife...