"Someone is saying really bad things about you," the message read. And then there was a URL. But when I clicked through, I was informed that Twitter had taken the message down as the user violated Twitter's policy on acceptable postings. I wrote back to the messenger, telling him that and quipped that it is the curse of "the rich and famous."

   Of course, rich or poor, famous or unknown, somewhere, sometime, the odds are someone is going to say something bad. When "Rate Your Professor" first came out, I asked my husband if he ever went to the site to see what his students were saying.

   He gave me a look. "No. The only ones who will bother to post anything are at the extremes-and mainly at the negative extreme. And I don't really want to read what they say."

   Smart man. Most customer service studies show that overwhelmingly, people tell other people only about the lousy service or miserable experience they've had. The problem, of course, is that sometimes those occurred only in the eyes of the person telling the tale. Still, if enough other people have had good or even benign experiences, the bad mouthing will get lost in the general chatter.

   To drown the bad with the good, obviously, means you have to be doing good work. And for organizations that reach out for private support, that's where stewardship comes in.

The more you can make your existing donors feel warm, welcomed and well-informed, the more good things will be said about the work you do. Not only will these existing donors continue to be donors-and often give at higher levels, but they will tell others, who may just become new supporters for your cause.

   If bad things are being said, however-and you can find out what those are-dealing with them quickly and confidently will lessen any potential damage.

   Sometimes that simply means taking ownership. "Yes, this did happen...and here is what we are doing to combat/prevent it from ever happening again." Sometimes that means explaining the real situation, without whining or pointing fingers elsewhere. Professionally and with dignity get the truth out there.

   Occasionally, it means accepting that it goes with the territory. The more well-known you are, the more someone, somewhere, will have a grudge-real or imagined. Responding to that kind of bad-mouthing only gives the bad-mouther what he or she wants: Attention. In those (hopefully rare) cases, all you can do is continue doing the good work you are doing.

   Several hundred years ago, George Herbert, an English Poet and clergyman, noted that "Living well is the best revenge." That, along with the notion of making lemonade, is the best advice for dealing with all those lemons that life has a tendency to toss at us.

 Fundraising capacity not where you want it to be?

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What Story Does Your Resume Tell?

Almost three years ago, we published this article. As the economy has continued to stutter and too many people are still out there, looking for jobs, we thought it was appropriate to reprint. Ruth Loomis is still helping organizations to hire exactly the right people and individuals to find their right job. Ruth is also working on getting certified as an executive coach with the goal of helping executives who are ready to make a move make that move the right one! 

  Ruth Loomis is a matchmaker. For over 20 years, Ruth has been an executive search consultant, matching nonprofit organizations with the right executives. A big part of her job is reading and reviewing resumes-and sometimes helping candidates develop resumes that tell the same story she hears in her personal candidate interviews.

  "Resumes should show potential employers how the candidate's experiences meets their needs," Ruth says.  "But too often, they are just listings of job dates and duties." If your resume is one of 100+ that were received in response to a job posting, you can't assume that the overwhelmed HR employee assigned to screening them is going to "connect all the dots." 

  You want to highlight your skills and abilities to show that you are the right candidate. That means your resume needs to give the context that illustrates your work trajectory and highlights the benefits you brought to each employer.

  "Accomplishments-how you succeeded, are so much more important than the tasks you performed," says Ruth. "In fact, at a senior level, it is virtually a given that you must know what to do -the question is what do you bring beyond that?"

  Your resume should not just be about you, Ruth comments. "It should be about what you can do for your potential employer." This is especially important in the nonprofit sector where too often we are doing more with less.  (READ MORE)