I'm sure we've all been in the position where we are about to lose one of our best employees and wonder what could have done, if anything, to keep them. In many cases, especially in the nonprofit world where attrition can be high, it may simply be a matter of moving up the ladder. The employee may love working for the organization, but they got another offer that was too good to pass up. You may feel as though there was nothing that could have been done differently; it's unavoidable and part of doing business.
   However, there is one thing you can do to reduce losing your best employees. Treat them like valued partners in the organization and involve them at all levels from entry to higher-end management. Here is what that looks like: 

• Include them and make them feel as though they are part of the team. Let them know what's happening and why, and give them a chance to voice their thoughts in decisions that affect the organization and their job directly. (READ MORE)

Sherri W. Morr is principal in the full service fundraising firm, MORR Fundraising, Inc.  Her decades of fundraising expertise has emphasized training and enhancing cultivation and stewardship through systematic individual plans.  Of late she has worked with nonprofits to identify new prospects. .  She can be reached at smorrinc@gmail.com.  

What you may wonder do these two very different concepts have to do with organizations?  At first glance you may think, not much.  But if you understand the major gift process in nonprofits in connection to staying the course then you may think again.
   In the mid 1900s a horse jumping off a ledge on the Atlantic City Steel Pier was a great feat and a huge crowd-pleaser.  Hundreds of people would watch the horse way up high with a practically naked rider jump into the water.  Back then animal rights people were either nonexistent or silent.  Then years later a promoter, seeking to again draw crowds to Atlantic City (before Super storm Sandy) in today's sluggish economy announces this crazy stunt is coming back...with no thought to the public or the horse who actually faced grave danger way back when.

   Fortunately even in  our depressed society where the near poor face daily challenges, the unemployed still beg for jobs, and the one percent does not worry about the poor, our  animal rights folks are vigilant, and far  from silent.  Not even a week after the big Flying Horse announcement the protests are so loud and so strong, the idea is quickly shoved under the rug, and that's the end of the Flying Horses.
   Making donations have been part of American Society for a very long time; organizations have been making gifts to the poor, to disasters both here and abroad, way before Flying Horses.  It's been consistent; major gift fundraising has not disappeared, or taken a back seat or a lull, since at least as early as the mid 1800s.  As early as 1915 community chests, or federated campaigns were born, but prior to that Andrew Carnegie and other benefactors like John D. Rockefeller set the tone for giving 'surplus" money to social causes. As long as there were issues, people in trouble, or lacking resources, society responded to requests.     Nonprofits figured out early on how to establish group giving through March of Dimes and the Red Cross, thus inviting others to be part of such a group.  Giving became a door to acceptance, belonging, and social status.  Donors saw the benefits of giving (because someone explained them) even though they were not packaged in a fancy brochure.  "Why give" did not have to be explained in several different forms.  Donors were smart enough even way back when to know that networking (aka schmoozing) would help their businesses, increase their own notoriety, and maybe even get them invitations for dinner. (READ MORE)