News/Blog

Happy 60^th Birthday, AFP!

Happy New Year, everyone!  Now that year-end gift processing has (hopefully!) been completed and the results are in, I trust that 2019 was a great year for your organization’s fundraising.  And, I hope that 2020 is even more successful, though you only have 349 more days to reach your goal, so you’d better get cracking!  Thankfully, we have an extra day due to the leap year this year…

The Donor Experience

As some of you may know, I lead and manage a for-profit company that serves the technology and information management needs of nonprofits.  Over the years, we have built software products and established a consulting business.  Essentially, our nonprofit clients are our customers.  So, when I received an email invitation from an organization called “Meetup” about how to build a better customer service experience, I figured that this would be a great opportunity to learn more.

The work of a fundraiser can be enormously difficult. There are many factors that contribute to this, but the one that has the most potential for generating stress is the relationship between the CEO/Executive Director and the Director of Development. This can be a marriage made in heaven or hell depending up the capacity and willingness of both individuals to accept the challenges of creative communication and collaboration. This was the topic of an AFP-NYC Educational Program on July 18, 2019.

AFP-NYC In-Person Webinar
June 26, 2019

The Next Generation of Giving Research Series conducted by Blackbaud in 2010, 2013, and 2018 details the multichannel communication preferences and giving habits of individuals based upon their age cohorts. While not everyone fits into a generational mold, there is a lot to be learned from the research regarding how, when, and where to reach out to each group.

“Do something every day that scares you,” was the advice of one of my early mentors, a high school teacher.  I am not sure I do something that scares me every day, but I will recount something I did recently that scared me. 

While I am beginning the final weeks of serving as the President of our great Chapter, I’ve had the chance to reflect on the role AFP-NYC will play in shaping the future of our profession.  In the process, I came to realize that probably at least one-third, if not half of the positions and titles that will lead development shops beyond the next decade don’t even exist today.

How Do We LEAD?

Three weeks ago, fellow AFP-NYC board member, Kerry Watterson, and I headed out to Phoenix, where we had the pleasure and honor to represent our chapter at the AFP LEAD conference.  

My colleagues have written about the state of the fundraising sector in the last few leadership briefs, reflecting on results from a recent study about low retention rates among fundraisers.  They shared some insightful reasons for this and how we as a profession can work together to address this.

There’s a lot going on in our sector right now.  We’re debating the ethics of fundraising in the wake of the college admission and Epstein scandals.  We continue to worry about fundraiser retention as yet another study illustrates many of us are unhappy in our jobs and planning to make job or career changes.

AFP-NYC EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM
September 19, 2019, Scandinavia House, New York City