Wild Woman Fundraising

You’ve Got Answers! According to LinkedIn, I’m an expert in Nonprofit Fundraising, Philanthropy, Work-life Balance, Non-profit Management, Social Enterpreneurship, and Public Relations. Here are some questions where my answer got chosen as best answer: “Facebook – serious concerns regarding privacy, where would all the ‘facebook’ users go? Plenty of the industry voices are calling for [...]

What causes do you wish that more foundations would make a priority?

Foundations have so little money that I don’t think about them very much.

You’ve Got Advice! Yesterday, I asked YOU some questions about your career. Today, I’m answering reader questions. This question struck me as pretty common with the people I’ve met through running the job club. How do I get experience in doing a job, so that I can get hired for the job? If you want [...]

I recently met up with Ana Ottman of Red Dress Studios, to talk about business mentorship. She had some wonderful advice, and through her, I found this map. It’s a mind map of all entrepreneur resources in Austin. I love it, and I think you could make one too. Whether you’re a domestic violence agency [...]

Five things can make people want to give to you, according to Robert Cialdini’s book, Influence. Reciprocation This is also known as the give and take and take. If you give a donor a flower, they might feel more inclined to give money to your organization. This is also the way the free sample works, [...]

There’s a reason you’ve never seen a full picture of me on here! Yeah, I’ve got a long tail. It’s kind of got a “Puff The Magic Dragon” vibe. But I roll with it.

So, in the spirit of my long tail, here’s what I learned from Chris Anderson’s bestseller The Long Tail, and how this applies to your nonprofit!

What is the Long Tail?

It’s a book by Chris Anderson, who talks about the internet’s ability to keep a product going long after it should have stopped selling. The Long Tail means that there are no masses, but lots of people with very specific sets of niches and interests. Mr. Anderson looks at the business models of Zappos, Amazon, Ebay, Apple, Google, and other top American companies, and tries to decipher how they keep up with the changing pace of the business world and the internet markets.

This can apply to your charity, and I’m going to tell you how after the jump.

As a grantwriter and grant panelist I’m fortunate to have experience on both sides of the grantmaking process. Here’s my list of the Top 10 grantwriting mistakes people make, plus one bonus one!

Here is a Fundraising Plan Checklist that you can use every time you start a new appeal, campaign, event, or grant proposal. How much do we want to raise? Are you going to try to raise $3,000 with your annual report? Are you going to try to raise $20,000 with an event? What is a [...]