In my first attempt to hire my own financial advisor in my late 20s, I turned to Morgan Stanley in San Francisco. I interviewed two people. One had a slide show presentation and overflowing binders of charts and graphs showing me how they informed his decisions, his track record, how this and that outperformed that […]
Don’t Believe the “Complexifiers” Read More »
This week, instead of sharing one point of wisdom, I’d like to share many – 46 of them, in fact. That’s how many entries you’ll find in my newly published book, Confident Giving: Sage Advice for Funders. Why write a book? While a blog is great for sharing advice and helpful content in small, quick bursts
Collected Wisdom for Grantmakers Read More »
I love developing new grant initiatives for foundations and individual philanthropists. There is nothing more exciting that identifying a problem where you have the potential to make a difference and then putting a plan in place to do just that. However, once the fanfare has subsided, I’ve noticed that many funder initiatives lose steam. Frustration
3 Reasons Your New Funding Initiative Will Falter Read More »
There are many rules of thumb and lists of best practices out there for grantmakers. Yet, so many grantmakers seem to get caught in ruts of practice and policy that hold them back from achieving the effectiveness and impact they want to deliver. Here are five of the most common mistakes that I’ve seen through
5 Common Philanthropy Mistakes You Cannot Afford to Make Read More »
No one likes to feel left out or overlooked, and when key stakeholders feel that way, the results can be painful and long lasting. I recently conducted a focus group of community leaders who expressed serious concerns about the lack of communication within a significant regional initiative. When I asked the group what could be
The 4 Dimensions of a Successful Communications Plan Read More »
I’m thrilled to announce the Communications Network/Putnam Consulting Group Blog Team for the Communications Network Fall 2013 Annual Conference! We’ll be blogging from New Orleans starting with the pre-conference sessions on Wednesday, October 2nd. Follow along with the conference hashtag: #comnetwork13 and follow @Com_Network and @Philanthropy411 for tweets about the conference and blog posts. Here
Announcing the Blog Team for the Communications Network Annual Conference Read More »