Giving is Good
Gad Saad, in The Consuming Instinct, has penned an interesting and deep read around the notion of biologically-driven choices. He discusses how our biology drives our consumption behaviors in ways far more important than culture or socialization alone can account. I thought about our work as advancement professionals when Gad covered the “variety effect” and…
Not long ago, I was in an airport looking forward to getting home after a long but productive week of client visits. It was late on a Friday night and a far away but severe weather system had wrecked havoc with the friendly skies. Although the weather at our location was perfect, a number of…
How can you lead the members of your advancement team so that each performs even the most ordinary of tasks in extraordinary fashion? How do you motivate staff members to be the best version of themselves day-in and day-out? How do manage staff members so that they respond positively to new ideas or new strategies?…
Time to make the call on the prospective donors. You know which call it is – it’s the ask. This is big. In fact, it’s the biggest ask you’ve ever made of a prospect. You’ve set up the meeting and a member of your Board will be with you. You’ve created a call script. You’ve…
Forget about your stand-by New Year resolutions. As humans, we seem incredibly poor at keeping them. And, in the instances where we do keep them, they don’t seem to make much of a difference. One year rolls into another and we find that we still want to get better at our work, we want to…
Have you stumbled upon Klout.com yet? It’s a quantitative value analysis of your online influence. Every facebook “like,” every tweet, every published blog, every status update, and photo comment adds to your value as an online influencer. A higher score means you have more influence with others in the virtual realm. Recently, I read an…
In our world today, there are many who chase after acknowledgment without a proficiency in any art form. Their goal is not to develop a craft, aptitude, or skill. They simply want to be famous. And, because a proficiency in an art is absent, others wonder aloud as to how these folk achieve any level…
What are the hurdles you are facing in your work life today? What are the problems keeping you from reaching your Far Edge of Promise? Go ahead, list them. Not enough budget? Not the right people on the team? Not enough people on the team? Too much bureaucracy? A micro-managing boss? Support staff that doesn’t…
Every institution that my firm, Gonser Gerber, works with has the same question when it comes to social media: How can facebook, Twitter, Google+, and other social media help us raise more money? Truth is, we are spending more time with our social networks – keeping content fresh, moderating discussions, etc. – and the energy…
So our good friends at The National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia have released the findings from their latest national survey of marital happiness. They surveyed 1,400 married couples and found that the level of generosity – or the amount of give and take that goes on in the relationship – is a…