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I love social media. I can connect with others and quickly find out what they're doing. But when I learned some people are now finding out about the death of friends via Facebook, I began to despise

Incorporate these pointers from professional storytellers to elevate your sales skills.Get the latest blog articles on business ideas and trends from...

For years I’ve written about how the 4 Ps of Marketing, Product, Place, Pricing, and Promotion represented a dated perspective of customers and markets. In an era of connected consumerism, one could argue the merits of any of “Ps” and whether or not they’re still relevant. I suppose that’s a debate for another time. Instead, I’d like to introduce of two additional Ps that will propel a decades old concept and modernize it for a social economy.

Been thinking a lot  about of the work processes around creating content and measuring its against outcomes this week.    One idea that came up in my post earlier this week about creating and measuring content, was the concept of an idea dashboard.

Learn how you can become a successful agile business blogger.

You'll be more successful if you think of life as an experience.

Learn how to perform a website audit to improve your SEO and conversions.

They want you to show them that you know them. And we do this best by listening.

 

I’m compelled to add this coda to the C.P.A. series because there’s some breaking news that pertains to what was one of my favorite listening tools.

The news is not good lately about how effective the head fundraiser is at nonprofit organizations. A new study by CompassPoint reveals some startling realities about the fundraiser role in the nonprofit sector:

25% of executive directors fired their last development director33% of executive directors are lukewarm about their current development directorMore than 50% of executive directors say they can’t find well-qualified fundraisers50% of development directors plan to leave within the next two yearsAnd 40% plan to leave fundraising altogether

I recently hosted a guest post by Jay Love on the great donor exodus.  He covered how to determine how many donors you are keeping - and losing.  Today, he’s back with another guest post to discuss WHY they leave.  Please share this post, because understanding why donors quit is the first step to getting them to stay.  The author, Jay Love, is the former CEO of eTapestry.  He is currently CEO of Bloomerang and SVP of Avectra while serving on numerous local and national nonprofit boards.

It's the difference between hiring people who work for you -- or themselves.

An effective team is a powerful thing. Many of us have participated on teams where the members complement each other, trust each other and find ways of working that are not only effective, but also enjoyable. For teams like this, performance is typically much higher than might be expected of the sum of individuals.

Is your to-do-list never-ending? Are you able to take time off away from your business? As entrepreneurs, we are always trying to achieve that balance.

Several weeks ago I had lunch with a board member of a small community-based nonprofit that does important work in the D.C. region. The board member also happens to be a seasoned consultant who has written several books on fundraising.

 

That’s why I was surprised when he advanced an argument I’ve heard many times from board members of other organizations

I recently attended an inspiring talk byDaniel Pink, author of To Sell Is Human, and found myself furiously taking notes.  Next thing you know I was impulsively buying the book (autographed, of course)! Do I have buyer’s remorse? Absolutely not. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Everything he has to say is so directly applicable to fundraising and the nonprofit sector that [IMHO] it’s a ‘must read’ for those of us in the philanthropy business. Here’s why:

A report on wealthy Next Gen donors from 21/64 and the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy finds that surveying 310 major donors including in-depth interviews with 30 high-net-worth Generation X and Millennial individuals care about impact and want to feel personally tied to the causes they support.  Family heavily influences their choices of causes.  They are similar to other donors in these ways - but distinct in how serious they are about making real change and how heavily they use technology to engage with causes.

 

Is showing up at the top of Google Search results part of your marketing strategy? It should be! Just because you have a website doesn’t mean your site will be at the top of the google search page.

I have a dream for 2013 – and beyond. I have a dream  this is the year your organization will move beyond defining yourself by what you’re not (nonprofit) and will begin to define yourself by what you are (social benefit). I have a dream  this is the year your people will move from an attitude of taking and hitting people up (aka “fundraising”) to a mindset of giving and lifting people up (aka “philanthropy”). I have a dream this is the year your staff and volunteers will move from enacting transactions to enabling transformation.

No one doubts that a Board of Directors needs diversity in order to be most effective.  Nobody wants a board full of risk averse types who stymie innovation but likewise let’s not get too excited...

20 great examples of homepages from a variety of industries to help inspire your next homepage redesign.

Humans are not born resilient -- we learn, adapt, and improve upon our resilience. The same is true for organizations, systems, and societies. But what makes some people or organizations more resilient than others?