I’ve been running now for about 10 years (actually, I jog, but that sounds 1980ish). Over those years, I’ve only experienced two injuries that were painful enough to sideline me this activity that I’ve grown to love. One of those injuries occurred about 8 years ago. It was a sharp pain on the outer side…
Tag: Fundraising
3 Ways Social Technologies Are Failing Development Efforts
I’ll start this post by professing that I am neither a technological luddite nor hypocrite. I value and gladly utilize technology – in all its forms. Heck, I’m communicating with you via a distributed, social technology that makes our large world wonderfully and magically small. Technologies, especially social technologies, such as social media, wikis, blogs,…
The Urban Legends of Fundraising – Part II of III
Urban legend – An urban legend, urban myth, or urban tale is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories thought to be factual by those circulating them. (Wikipedia) In part II of our three-part series, I am focusing on the “It’s All About The Ask” Urban Legend. Specifically, this Urban Legend purports that fundraisers…
The Urban Legends of Fundraising – Part I of III
Urban legend – An urban legend, urban myth, or urban tale is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories thought to be factual by those circulating them. (Wikipedia) This week, my aim is to debunk a few urban legends regarding fundraising. These are examples of “conventional wisdom” that, over the years, I’ve heard repeated often by otherwise…
Coming to a university near you: Micro-donations
So, here’s the micro-donation concept in action – alumni and other fans at a college football game would “compete” with each other by texting their small gift commitments in support of their respective schools. Two questions immediately come to mind: Is this giving repeatable? We know from recent research that donors who make gifts online are…
How will you perform under pressure?
Ever notice that some people perform well under pressure while others seem to wilt? As the chart above suggests, we typically need some level of anxiousness in order to care enough to perform. But at some point the level of anxiousness becomes debiliating causing a drop-off in performance. But at what point does this happen?…
What losing luggage can teach us about donor communications
Recently, I had a frustrating experience – my luggage was mistakingly taken by a fellow air traveler. As I travel often, I always check my baggage planeside. And so, on one trip I got off the plane, waited for my luggage to be brought up the jetway and after a few minutes, left empty handed….