Advancement professionals regularly are looking for ways to “better tell our institution’s story.” I have written in the past about how better storytelling alone won’t lead to larger gifts. Instead, I’ve suggested that the concept of story-listening is a much better way to go about attracting larger gifts. It is the donor’s story that is…
Month: June 2012
A Report on Reports
Bruce Cameron is credited with the quote, “Not everything that can be counted counts. And not everything that counts can be counted.” In the world of measuring and evaluating development officer performance, we have many variables which we could employ to judge effectiveness. But just because we can track something and report it, doesn’t mean that we…
Bringing Your Umbrella
There is a often-told story about the distinction between activity and belief: “A rural church in the middle of farming country had a special service to pray for rain. A drought had hit the area hard and the farmers and community were suffering financially and spiritually. Many people came to the service to pray and,…
Reason and Relationship
Effective development officers are said to blend science with art. While it sounds nice and is easy to say, I have never really found the “science and art” phrase to be overly helpful in explaining our work. Here’s why: Being an scientist and an accomplished artist can occur from individual effort – I can…