If you’re a fundraiser, it’s often helpful to think like a donor. When leading workshops, I encourage people to flip this mental switch. “How many of you have ever given away money to anybody for any reason at all?” Of course, all the hands go up. Then I ask people to pair off and talk about why they give. These small groups generate a long list of reasons; here’s one of the most popular. Giving feels good. […]

The following article is cross-posted from Alliance magazine blog. Based out of the UK, Alliance magazine is the leading global magazine on philanthropy and social investment. As the largest infrastructure organization for sharing social sector knowledge and more than nine million data points about who’s funding what and where, the Foundation Center takes great pride in housing an equally sizable team of programmers, data specialists, designers, and other technologists. Unlike most of the tech sector, more than half of those team members […]

Today’s title might suggest morbidity, but actually it’s a tale of profitability. It’s a story about what happens to a donor’s money that isn’t spent during their lifetime. Let me start at the beginning.