planning

Adventures in Fundraising: Just Do It!

Maureen Carruthers 4 Comments
To-do list book.

Image by koalazymonkey via Flickr

This post is part of a series.  Click here to read previous posts.

Like pretty much every other nonprofit out there, Mach 30 launched a year-end fundraising campaign.  Unlike other organizations, this campaign is not a part of our fundraising plan.

Because we don’t have a fundraising plan.

We meant to have a fundraising plan.  We started to work on one.  And yet, as sometimes happens with all volunteer organizations, the actual planning fell through the cracks.

It was starting to look like we’d just have to put off our fundraising until after the new year.  Luckily for us, one of our board members got impatient (in the good way). Continue reading →

3 Simple Ways to Reclaim December

Maureen Carruthers Leave a comment
Christmas lights on Aleksanterinkatu.

Image via Wikipedia

December has a secret power.  It’s the only month of the year where you get to feel insanely busy for 31 days and then, at the end,  look back and feel like you accomplished nothing.  Isn’t that fun?

While there is little to do about the “insanely busy” part, making time for these three  activities in December will help you prepare for an amazing January. Continue reading →

Dare to Dream

Maureen Carruthers 4 Comments
Judah's Bedtime Reading

Image by protoflux via Flickr

Many nonprofits are famous for doing their work with almost no resources.  It’s an impressive trick, especially in lean times, but this attitude can also negatively impact  long-term success.

Nonprofits working in this way often tell themselves this story:  Our community doesn’t understand or appreciate our work, so we can’t ask them for more support.  Therefore, we have no choice but to continue to do what we can with what we have.  Our best option is to scrape together the tiny bits of funding and support we have and cobble them together into something that sort of works.

So what’s wrong with this story? Continue reading →