Award-Winning Blog


Stop Yelling. Start Persuading.

There comes a point when the inbox on my laptop and the messages app on my iPhone simply can’t take it anymore. I hit that point somewhere around the fifth email and 3rd SMS this morning.  They screamed: “MIDNIGHT DEADLINE!” “Your $3 gift will be 7X MATCHED!” “If you don’t act now, democracy will surely […]

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From Flat to Fired Up: Personalize Your Appeals with Psychological Precision

Most fundraisers still segment by age, income, or giving history. It’s better than nothing—but just barely.  Everyone gets the same message. Same tone. Same appeal.  And we cross our fingers and hope it lands. Which question would you rather be answering as a fundraiser, which one is likely to matter more to the reader? Who […]

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Ring the Bell, Not Your Hands

In times like these, it’s easy—fashionable, even—to believe that doom is a foregone conclusion. That democracy is circling the drain. That artificial intelligence will eat our jobs, our meaning, our minds. That cruelty is ascendant and civic life has cracked. But despair is lazy. Worse—it’s contagious. It spreads faster than hope and sticks longer than […]

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The Thermofax Gospel of Recurring Giving

Let me tell you a story. It’s May 24, 1815. Some well-meaning folks in a fledgling nation decided they could collect money on a regular basis. For charity. Subscription-style. Recurring generosity. Monthly giving. They got it right two hundred and ten years ago. Now jump to the present day, where most nonprofit boards still stare […]

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Memorial Day 2025

MOURN.  REMEMBER.

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Fundraising Is a Mirror. What Are You Reflecting?

Look at the image sets. Clean desk or chaos corner? Friendly reminder above the sink or sarcastic passive-aggression? Still life fruit or wild abstraction? Window-gazing calm or crowd-surfing madness?  You have a clear favorite in each pair, no struggle, no committee meeting, just instant affinity. That’s personality at work. That’s traits in action. And that […]

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