Author: Jason McNeal

If you provide leadership to an individual or team, you have 5 responsibilities: Goals – With their input, agree to the 4-6 most meaningful goals to their role or function that should be achieved over the next year.  These goals should be specific, quantifiable or timebound; Plan – Help them (as needed) prepare and present…

No phrase in professional life is met with more frustration.  It is almost always wholly unsatisfactory as a response, hints at passive aggression, and underlies a stubborn unwillingness to change. However, “that is how we’ve always done it,” is also a helpful reminder for leaders. When that phrase is used, we tend to focus on…

Leaders regularly engage with different groups to advance the enterprise in various ways.  In many instances, though, we don’t address well the fundamental questions those groups have about our expectations for their service. Here is a handy chart that provides some language to help clarify the role and purpose for 5 key groups who are…

In stark and startling-fast fashion, Americans are choosing to be alone more than ever before. According to various reports, by 2021, adults in the U.S. were spending 58% less time with family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers, than they were in 2014.  Meanwhile, the amount of time spent completely alone has increased at a similar pace…

For a number of years now, the four members of our family have annually used this month to identify charitable organizations we feel are doing good work and, then, have made a gift to each. Each child, my wife, and I have each chosen our own organizations to support. It’s been a rewarding, educational, and…

your social media efforts are working? your gift officers are effective? your annual giving program is growing sustainably? your stewardship program is engaging? your database is healthier? your constituent relations program is expanding? By the way, “I will know because we are raising more money!” is a horrible response to all of these questions. Gift…

The idea of magic is easy to fall in love with.  There must be a secret code, a key, a phrase (“Abracadabra”), a spell, a process. . . And, if I can just learn the secret and apply it, work will become more frictionless, answers to vexing questions will be more clear, and all will…

MacKenzie Scott has given away approximately $14 billion over the last 3 years. During her most recent giving cycle, Scott gave almost $2 billion to 343 organizations, and made the following statement: “I needn’t ask those I care about what to say to them, or what to do for them. I can share what I…

At its core, the difference between annual giving and major giving is the size of the potential donor pool.  While all constituents are invited to make annual or sustaining gifts, we only engage with a smaller subset of donors who have the prosperity, propensity, passion to make major gifts. This one difference drives all other…