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Treat Members Equitably Not Equally
In the association world, we tend to want to treat all our members equally: nobody is more important or special than anyone else. That’s a noble impulse and helpful, up to point. After all, you don’t...
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Your Baby Is Ugly
One of the great things about being a consultant is that we get to tell people when their baby is ugly without them getting mad at us – hey, they’re PAYING us to tell them when their baby is ugly....
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Reduce Barriers to Entry
Just about every association I know of is struggling to recruit younger members (aka Millennials). Part of the reason for that is that we’re erecting barriers to entry rather than removing them. What’s...
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Don’t Get Lazy!
Putting it all together, maybe the most important thing Sohini and I learned from fundraisers as we were researching Steal Like a Fundraiser (and as Sohini has worked with them over the past two...
View ArticleWebinar: Growth Strategies from Top Fundraisers
Have you ever wondered how some charitable organizations get major donors to write those five-figure checks? Or, how they manage to attract all those millennials to volunteer? Or, how they put...
View ArticleGrowth Strategies from Top Fundraisers
My Steal Like a Fundraiser: Innovations in Cause-Oriented Fundraising for Associations co-author Sohini Baliga and I recently had the opportunity to talk with some smart people about the information in...
View ArticleGrowth Strategies from Top Fundraisers Q&A
In my last post, I shared the link to the webinar my Steal Like a Fundraiser co-author Sohini Baliga and I presented for Wild Apricot on March 21. Sohini and I got to as many questions as we could at...
View ArticleWebinar: Growth Strategies from Top Fundraisers
Have you ever wondered how some charitable organizations get major donors to write those five-figure checks? Or, how they manage to attract all those millennials to volunteer? Or, how they put...
View ArticleGrowth Strategies from Top Fundraisers
My Steal Like a Fundraiser: Innovations in Cause-Oriented Fundraising for Associationsco-author Sohini Baliga and I recently had the opportunity to talk with some smart people about the information in...
View ArticleGrowth Strategies from Top Fundraisers Q&A
In my last post, I shared the link to the webinar my Steal Like a Fundraiserco-author Sohini Baliga and I presented for Wild Apricot on March 21. Sohini and I got to as many questions as we could at...
View ArticlePartnership v. Membership: Untangling the Knot
I’m excited to announce a new blog series I’ll be writing with Lewis Flax, the founder of Flax Associates, a consulting firm that helps nonprofits support their objectives through establishing mutually...
View ArticleThe Ask Matters
About two weeks ago, DC’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, held a series of virtual budget engagement forums to share her draft budget for FY2022. The format her team chose was extremely clever. While waiting...
View Article6: Explaining Marketing to a Kid
Coming in at number 6 in the all-time list of top ten Spark blog posts: Explaining Marketing to a Kid. The original post was inspired by a fun activity the association I was working for at the time...
View Article5: 10 Tips for Creating an Effective Marketing Piece
We’re at the midpoint of the Top 10 All-Time Spark blog posts, with #5: 10 Tips for Creating an Effective Marketing Piece. The original piece was written in response to a conference presentation I’ve...
View ArticleLies, Damn Lies & Statistics?
Association execs consume – and produce – a lot of research in our day-to-day work, but most of us don’t have formal training in research. A lot of the language of research programs– p-values and...
View Article“P-Value”? What’s a “P-Value”?
And why should you care? Associations generate a lot of original research, but association execs also use a lot of research created by other entities both to assess the internal operations of the...
View ArticleCuriosity with a Purpose
As Zora Neale Hurston described it: Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose. When you’re sponsoring a research study, one of the biggest decisions you’ll have to make...
View ArticleBeing Responsible About Research
In this final post celebrating the launch of Caveat Emptor: Becoming a Responsible Consumer of Research, I want to talk about why this matters. Why do association execs need to develop discernment...
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