30 TIPS in 30 Days
First, I will cut to the chase. I created a really fun series (the rest of the team thinks so!) that provides some of our best fundraising tips and my lessons learned from the many, many years I have spent supporting nonprofit organizations. The series contains 30 consecutive daily messages for you to peruse and use to elevate your grant writing and fundraising. You can sign up to receive it here.
It’s all been knocking around in my head, and if you are a client of ours, you’ve probably heard me say some of it out loud.
As I celebrate 30 years in business, I am putting it out there, and I hope it serves you.
This is also a way for me to honor the memory of my mentor Dana Lichty, who taught me nearly everything I know, and keep my commitment to share the legacy she left me.
Yes, 30 years in business. This makes me a proud member of Generation X. We have seen the world evolve at warp speed, and we are still IN IT. Wisdom unlocked.
When I started working at Shakin, Lichty & Boreyko in 1993, I wore pantyhose and pumps. We all sat together in an office in the Flatiron building overlooking Madison Square Park. The office had a wall full of filing cabinets, a fax machine, a photocopier, and a Word Processor (this was a person named Jenni, not a piece of technology equipment). We did not have email. We had Rubbermaid index card holders containing all the grant history of the foundations funding our clients—a shelf of index card holders. We had a folder of menus for local restaurants, and we would take turns calling the restaurants on the office landline to place our lunch order. If we were up against a deadline, we would call a messenger service to hand-deliver a proposal packet to the foundation. Failing that, I would hightail it across town myself, arriving sweat-drenched in my pantyhose and pumps to hand over a manila envelope bursting with 10 hand-collated and paper-clipped copies of typed proposals, photocopied audits, budgets calculated with a calculator, and faded 501(c)(3) IRS determination letters..
In 1995, with a new dial-up modem and an even newer infant at home, I started my remote consulting business.
A lot has changed since those Good Old Days (I can Huddle on Slack!), but a lot has remained the same. Consistency is supreme. Relationships are key; nothing big happens outside of a conversation. AI is helpful, but good communication is still personal, intimate, and (beating) heart-felt.
I’ve never done anything like this before. Heck, up until 8 months ago, I didn’t even have a website! But recently I sat down and did a gigantic brain dump into 30 discrete emails, and I included some tools that the EME team has created for effective grant writing and fundraising. Then Kristin on the team put it all into Wix and Mailchimp for me. She’s a Millennial! Here is the link!
As I said, I hope this serves you, and I hope that if you like the series, you will share the link with folks you know. People who might benefit include: grant writers, development directors, all development staff, really; executive directors, program directors, all nonprofit staff, really; board members, volunteers, and anyone who is a parent or knows a parent (come to think of it). Oh, and anyone who has trouble focusing on stuff. Probably there are some gems for them, too.
And hey, I’d love to know what you think! Drop me a note if you want to talk about fundraising, communications, strategic planning, or Madonna.
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