Marc’s Musings

My Fundraising Blog

• Twitter for Nonprofits
  Twitter is a great free tool. And in a time of economic uncertainty, a free tool is a welcome help! Twitter is called “microblogging.” You get 140 characters to get your message across. 140 characters to answer the question on the Twitter home page: “What are you doing now?” When you first start to tweet, it feels [...]
• Ways to help spread the word
  Thanks to your efforts, Ask Without Fear! is getting: wonderful reviews on Amazon, tremendous responses from board members that are getting fired up about fundraising, listed as “must reads” on blogs and in FundRaisingSuccess Magazine, and mentions in the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Thank you! I just read a great list of ways to help get the word out about a [...]
• Are you trying to sell a bailout?
  Chris Busch has an interesting comment about the “branding” of the bailout bill. He comments that since nobody likes a bailout, terms like “workout” should be used instead. The branding of the legislation is shifting already. I’m intrigued to hear a lot more pundits talking about liquidity today than they were a couple days ago. But [...]
• FDIC insured? Check again
  The Don’t Tell the Donor Blog had a chilling link to a New York Times article. Here’s a quote from the article: About 30 nonprofit agencies that held several accounts at Freedom, each with less than $100,000, lost money because the F.D.I.C. considers the multiple accounts of a single depositor as a single account. The Fort [...]
• Nonprofit hospitals still raise Sen. Grassley’s ire
  The Chronicle of Philanthropy is reporting that Sen. Grassley is continuing his push to increase regulations on nonprofit hospitals. I work in one and didn’t think the regulation could get any tighter–especially for small community hospitals with a large reliance on Medicaid and Medicare! His focus and intensity on this issue seems to me to be a [...]
• The Pentagon Memorial and the importance of asking without fear
  The Washington Post did a great story on the Pentagon memorial called From Families’ Grief, a Symbol of Loss and Hope. This is a must read for fundraisers. It talks about how Jim Laychak worked through funding hurdles and his own emotions of losing his brother on 9/11. He came to realize that the only [...]
• More on what really annoys your donors
  My blog post What really bugs your donors? has gotten a lot of traffic. I’ve received over 100 responses between the question on LinkedIn, the comments on the blog, and emails sent directly to me! I’ve been amazed at how relieved people are that someone finally asked them what annoys them! Donors have been carrying these things [...]
• Help getting into Starbucks
  Could I ask you a big Friday favor? Would you help me get Ask Without Fear! into Starbucks stores? My local baristas strongly encouraged me to try to get Ask Without Fear! into Starbucks in conjunction with the National Philanthropy days in November. The "grassroots" appeal of the book is perfect for the typical Starbucks customer. Naturally, [...]
• Feeling guilty about not raising enough money?
  I’m really excited to be offering a full day of “Ask Without Fear!” training here in Waterville, ME on Saturday, September 13. This training will be ideal for board members and volunteers who are feeling guilty that they’re not doing as much fundraising as they think is expected of them. They’ll learn that fundraising really [...]