You need to know that for me, December (not June) is

the gloomy month. I get sad, a bit bored, antsy for the year to end and the holidays to go away. Mainly that latter. I am not a holiday kind of person.

 

   I try to drown my angst with work but that boredom I mentioned...it definitely gets in the way. And the more negative I am, the worse it gets.

   You know this. It's the more I eat, the more I need to eat; the more I sleep, the more I need to sleep; the more I focus on the negative, the more negative I become. Alas, it what happens around fundraising all too often.

   Rather than focusing on what can be done, too often nonprofits focus on what can't. And the constant saying, "we can't do this' and 'that won't work' becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If I had a dollar (well maybe a thousand dollars) for every client who told me that they don't have a wealthy community of donors, their supporters will not do whatever we talk about doing, nor will their board, or whatever it is that keeps them from raising funds, I wouldn't have to work so hard!

   And then the amazing Jean Grant, Associate VP for the Southern California Campus Advancement for The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, invites me to a networking breakfast. I get to spend two hours with the most dedicated, passionate, articulate people from all walks of life, not to mention that all are committed to philanthropy and the nonprofit sector, and that negativity goes away. It gets replaced with that sense of urgency that makes me want to to shout from the rooftops about the work that this sector does, the lives it changes, the problems it helps to solve.

   I think that's what my clients need. To get out more and talk with their clients to find out how their lives are being impacted by the work the nonprofit does. To learn from their donors why giving means so much-and why they (the professionals and honestly, the board members) need to be more positive in their fundraising and to ask for more transformational gifts.

  At the breakfast, there was a lot of talk of kinship, community, purpose, and joy. Those are words and concepts to live by. So in this holiday season, gift yourself and those you love with the promise of next year full of those things that really matter:  kinship, community, purpose, and joy!  

This month we're talking about boards and financial management, making bigger asks and making those asks integrated.

                  Keep reading--I hope you find it all useful. 

• Are your fundraising results down?
•  Board members bored?  
• Are you thinking about a campaign? 
• Or perhaps you need individual fundraising coaching!

Whatever your capacity building needs, Janet Levine Consulting can help.

  

 

 

email or give me a call at 310-990-9151

I look forward to meeting with you.

Sincerely,