I have sat in more prospecting meetings than I can count where someone starts naming wealthy people. A board member knows someone who sold a company. Someone else has a neighbor with a family foundation. A famous name comes up, and suddenly everyone is leaning forward. I understand it. Money is visible, and when you are trying to raise it, capacity can feel like the most important thing to know.
For years, I have taught fundraising teams to think about prospects in a particular order: affiliation first, belief second, and capacity third. Capacity comes last for a reason. The amount someone could give is useful information, but it cannot tell us whether that person is actually a good prospect.
In My Toolkit Most organizations try to create belonging through welcome, appreciation, and culture. Those things matter, but they are not enough. People begin to belong when they can see that their contribution changes what the group is able to accomplish. That requires more than inviting people in. It requires designing work that genuinely needs
Annalisa Unfiltered I spent one week this summer in a hot middle school classroom surrounded by thousands of pieces of donated clothing and some of the hardest-working people I have ever met. By the end of that week, more than 2,500 volunteers had transformed an entire school campus into the Bainbridge Island Rotary Auction and
In Our Toolkit Trying something new is not just about being brave enough to begin. It is also about being willing to learn in front of other people, which can feel much more vulnerable than learning privately where no one can see our uncertainty, awkwardness, or effort. Most of us want to be good at
My daughter created a piece of art that included my mother, me, and herself. My mother was the central image. Photos of me and Bree were layered into the piece. The piece was called Maternal. And it hung in The Met.
Low attrition right now may not mean that everything is working. It may reflect the external environment more than the internal one. People may be choosing stability in a moment where the risk of moving feels too high, and that means those decisions are often delayed rather than resolved.
I am not interested in using AI to produce more content. I am interested in using it to produce better work. In fundraising, the writing has consequences, so I treat AI like a collaborator that needs direction, not a machine that gets to run on autopilot. Before we write, I set a few non-negotiables…
I haven’t been posting a lot on LinkedIn lately. And when I behave differently, I usually get curious with myself. Why am I avoiding LinkedIn? After some thought, I realized it is because I’m afraid I might sound like what I’ve been seeing a lot: I call it LinkedIn Thought Leader Beige.
In Our Toolkit This time of year, I receive a lot of thank-you notes. I write a lot of them, too. And to be honest, most of them blur together. They’re polite. Appreciative. They hit the expected tone. But they don’t linger. Then every once in a while, I get one that does linger. Just
