Giving is Good
Pay more attention to others, less to yourself. Dogs don’t care about what they are doing. They care about what you are doing. And that makes us feel good. Don’t let a “no” derail your efforts. Sure, your dog might pout or cower if told “no” forcefully. But dogs don’t stay in that negative emotional…
**This Jason’s Blog entry is a bit more personal than usual. I hope you still find it helpful** Today, our family will travel together to move our oldest child and only daughter (and sister) to college. I’m a first generation college graduate. I grew up professionally in the higher ed. administrative and teaching spaces. I’ve…
A key aim of our advancement work should be to gain deeper awareness of our donors (and prospective donors). What do they believe about our institution? What is their motivation to volunteer? To give? What are their specific reasons for engaging with us? How would they describe their values? What other organizations do they support…
“What makes us distinctive or different or unique as compared with other institutions like us?” This is a question that Board members, administrative leaders, advancement folk, and others ask regularly and with some measure of irritation. The regularity of asking this question stems from the fact that our answer is fundamentally important to our marketing,…
If a menacing alien lifeform wanted to take over our world by systematically distracting us, I’m relatively certain they could not hatch a more effective plan than to introduce email into our lives. They would sell us on the ease, cost-efficiency, and instantaneous nature of the communication. And, used to only phones, snail mail, and…
Recently, I gave a 20-minute presentation designed to address the question, “when should you go public with your campaign?” The core of my response to this important question was (I admit unsatisfyingly), “it depends.” Simply put, there are no specific points of progress, no formula, nor definitive alignment of variables which would consistently forecast, for…
Gift officers put tremendous time and energy into identifying the best possible gift ask amounts for each of the donors they engage. They also focus a great deal of attention on identifying the area or purpose of the proposed gift. In other words, gift officers spend a lot of time prescribing gifts to donors. “We…
Without a point of view, any strategy that sounds good is worth trying. Without a point of view, it becomes exceptionally difficult to choose what to do and, (more) importantly, what not to do. Without a point of view, the annual calendar quickly devolves into a hodge-podge of activities without a general theme or purpose….
For many, the concept of a physical museum in today’s fast-paced, hyper-connected, digitally-enhanced world feels antiquated at best and useless at worst. Everything can be found online, so why still have immense, inefficient spaces to view artifacts? Two reflections come to mind: First, physical museums are designed to create stories that highlight how our lives,…
One institution has a president who is deeply embedded in the advancement process, enjoys engaging with donors, and is good at this work. Another institution has a president who doesn’t enjoy advancement nearly as much and, instead, prefers spending time leading other institutional issues rather than being with donors. One 150-year, 4-year institution has a…