“We are all faced with a series of great opportunities, brilliantly disguised as impossible situations”
Chuck Swindoll
It’s through one’s ability to motivate that a Non-profit Leader can Activate. Activate what? The written plans and internal passion they have for their cause, organization, or department. Where does this begin? With the self-talk and self-motivation of the leader. From there it’s important to be able to motivate and inspire others.
- Be they paid staff, Board members, unpaid volunteers. or large donors, those who have succeeded in both types of motivation will be the masters of their own destiny.
3 women have shared their thoughts on motivation on this blog. Twelve (12) quotes from our Leadership Keys posts should serve as good food for thought too.
“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.”
– Maya Angelou (1928 – 2014), Poet/Writer/Civil Rights Activist
“I am a slow walker, but I never walk back”.
—Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States
“We exist temporarily through what we take,
but we live forever through what we give”.
Vernon E. Jordan
Give and ‘live forever’
- At the core of fundraising is people motivating people to give (financially). At the core of volunteering is people giving their time.
Link: Mission Fulfillment & Fundraising: Leah Lamb’s Non-profit Journey
In this final Series post, Leah Lamb offers a few additional fundraising insights, including: Rainmakers are rare; approaching all generations of people (e.g. Millennials and Baby Boomers) the same way is unwise. In this post, Lamb will explore the role of boards, in effective fundraising, and the importance of understanding each generation’s distinct preferences – when supporting a non-profit organization or cause.
Leah Y. Lamb works for the See Forever Foundation & Maya Angelou Schools. As I mused on what to write in this introduction, I wondered this: Why are the schools named for Dr. Angelou? According to their website, the school-supporting See Forever Foundation was opened in 1997 as “a comprehensive program for 20 teens”. They sponsored a school-naming contest. The winning student essay, written by Sherti Hendrix, was powerful! It states:
The students of See Forever need a school name that represents the power and the importance of education. I think our charter school should be named after Dr. Maya Angelou . . . like [her] when she was a child, See Forever students have had a lot of problems, too. We have problems in our neighborhoods, our homes, and inside of ourselves. But like Dr. Angelou, the students of See Forever are using hard work and education to create a new future”.
Have you sought to conduct a major fundraising campaign in the past year? In this post, Leah Lamb offers nuanced insight into the best way to successfully solicit major gifts for your non-profit. If major campaigns aren’t rushed or starved for resources, they can be very fruitful.
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Leah Lamb
If you’re seeking to conduct a big campaign, you’ll need to solicit major gifts. To get major gifts for your non-profit, you should take the following 4 steps, namely:
- Introduce
- Cultivate
- Educate
- Solicit
Read More Fundraising 202: Making the Investment, Getting Major Gifts
Fundraising is very important to the sustainability of most non-profit organizations. As noted in an earlier series: No money, no mission. In this post, Leah Lamb offers insight into successfully conducting campaigns. She explores these in the context of earlier posts in this Your Outcomes Well series. Going the wrong way, as a fundraiser seeks to raise funds the right way, can block a non-profit’s success.
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Leah Lamb
In this Series I’ve tried to offer some insight into an area I’ve worked in for many years: Fundraising. As important as knowing what to do, to be a successful fundraiser, is also knowing what not to do. Routinely making mistakes or falling into traps are signs of an ineffectual fundraising operation.
Read More Fundraising 201: Avoiding Traps, Achieving Success
With effective marketing and branding, a non-profit organization is better able to accomplish it’s Mission and achieve sustainability. In this post Leah Lamb shares insights, gained over many years, to help non-profit leaders optimally market and brand their organizations.
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Leah Lamb
While many large non-profits get marketing and branding right, I think that the vast majority of small and mid-sized non-profit organizations don’t. What separates the non-profits that do from the ones that don’t? It depends, I’ve observed over the years, on these things: Leadership, tapping into their resources, and having an entrepreneurial spirit. Again, many large non-profits do a great job with marketing and branding, in most cases because they’ve budgeted for these things. Some in fact do as good a job as large companies like Coca Cola, Frito-Lay, and other major brands in this area.
Read More Non-profit Marketing: Insights from a Seasoned Pro
A mission is a terrible thing to waste. However worthwhile an organization’s mission, without funds a non-profit can’t operate. In this post Leah Lamb shares four (4) fundraising mistakes a non-profit should strive not to make.
Effective, successful fundraisers understand the mistake-prone areas she cites and generally avoid falling into the traps they present.
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Leah Lamb
I’ve shared, in my last two posts, the key to thriving as a fundraiser. In this post I thought I’d address the success-blocking mistakes that I’ve observed in my 25+ years working in the non-profit sector. If you make these four (4) mistakes regularly, you’ll likely be surviving – not thriving.
Read More Non-profits: 4 Fundraising Mistakes to Avoid Making
Who donates to a Non-profit and who doesn’t? What moves donors to donate? Leah Lamb, in the 3rd post in this Series, shares the three things she regularly strives to do to successfully motivate people to give.
Fundraising should rarely be done by a single person (or department) within a non-profit organization. To put it simply, Lone Rangers rarely flourish.
Read More Fundraising: The Best Way To Motivate Giving (Non-profits)
