a compass with the words chance, success, risk and failure on the face
Robert L. Weiner: Nonprofit Fundraising Technology Consulting

Do You Need New Donor Management Software?

Idealware just published an article by Keith Heller called Do You Need New Donor Management Software? Keith urges nonprofits to look before they leap into new software, cautioning that "new software may not make anything better — in fact, it could make things worse." He then addresses what new … [Read more...]

Using Humiliation to Fundraise

Trend or coincidence? Twice in the past week I've come across online fundraising campaigns in which the fundraiser promises to do something embarrassing when the goal is met. Last week, Holly Ross, NTEN's Executive Director, posted a video appeal for her attempt to raise $10,000 for scholarships … [Read more...]

Creating bookmarks and hyperlinks in Acrobat Pro 5

Word 2003 and Acrobat Professional 5 aren't on speaking terms. As far as I've been able to tell, PDFMaker, which provides 1-click integration with Word, is incompatible with Word 2003 and higher. I removed PDFMaker from the Word startup file according to these instructions and no longer get error … [Read more...]

Pizzigati Prize for Open Source Software Developers

From the Foundation Center's RFP bulletin: The Tides Foundation Invites Nominations for Award Honoring Open Source Software Developers Who Add Value to Nonprofit Sector Deadline: March 2, 2009 The Tides Foundation is accepting nominations for the $10,000 Antonio Pizzigati Prize for … [Read more...]

Cn U Raise $ Via Txt?

Following up on Elliot's blog post, How Important Is Mobile Giving?, and the subsequent TechSoup discussion, I'm posting an analysis conducted by Sarah Grosvenor, the Assistant Director of Annual Giving at Willamette University, on the potential for mobile fundraising at the University. Sarah … [Read more...]

So You Want To Be A Consultant?

I'm organizing two workshops for NTEN's upcoming Nonprofit Technology Conference on the topic So You Want To Be A Consultant? (The workshops are described here and here.) Holly Ross, NTEN's Executive Director interviewed me via Skype a few weeks ago and posted the video at … [Read more...]

Using Prospect Research to Raise $1 Million

Margaret King, President of the InfoRich Group, has published an article on how prospect research yielded $1 million in foundation funding for one of her clients. She discusses the strategy behind the research, the tools she used, how the list was narrowed to a group of top prospects, and the … [Read more...]

The Quick ‘n Easy Guide to Online Advocacy

Tactical Tech, based in the UK and India, has published The Quick 'n Easy Guide to Online Advocacy to help advocates find "online services that are quick to use and easy to understand." Here's how they describe it: The guide provide descriptions of online services including social … [Read more...]

Fundraising via Social Media: Pros and Cons

I've already mentioned Beth Kanter's extensive discussion of Twestival, an attempt to raise $500,000 for the group charity:water using Twitter. Beth titled her post Are Fundraising Groundswells A Massive Opportunity or Distraction for Nonprofit Organizations? and didn't reach a conclusion either … [Read more...]

Twestival: Trying to raise $500,000 through Twitter

Beth Kanter wrote an extensive, thoughtful account of the upcoming Twestival event, which aims to raise $500,000 for the group charity:water. As a fundraising operations geek, I wonder how this works on the back end. Will the Twestival organizers send tax receipts to the donors, or will that … [Read more...]

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