Archive for the "Foundations" Category
SmartMoney: Dumb Article on Fundraisers
I am sick of the financial media beating up on fundraising. Every few months, some piece appears, seeming to delight in scaring donors with a horror story of an errant ratio or an unorthodox practice. But when I saw this blog called “10 Things Fundraisers Won’t Tell You” on the SmartMoney page of the Wall Street Journal site, I could take it no more. I’ve hit back (in a very lady-like way) with:
10… Read the rest- 14 April 2026
- Category: Evaluation,Foundations,Individual Giving,Major Gifts Fundraising,Trends in Fundraising
- 1 Comment
- Written by: Leslie Allen
A Fundraising Fairy Tale: What Would You Do with $5 Million?
You’re at your desk. It’s December – you’re coming down the home stretch. The fundraising year is almost over. Suddenly the phone rings. On the other end is a Google employee who tells you that the company’s charitable gift fund has money to give away by the end of the year. Would you, the Google employee asks, be able to put together a proposal for up to $5 million? And could you do it in… Read the rest
- 16 February 2026
- Category: Foundations,Major Gifts Fundraising,Nonprofit Capacity
- 0 Comment
- Written by: Leslie Allen
Rainy Day Giving (and Keeping)
Giving USA just released its philanthropy report for 2009. Turns out, last year was as bad as we thought. Philanthropy dropped 3.6% (3.2% when adjusted for inflation), the steepest decline since Giving USA started tracking the numbers in 1956. Of course, this is lockstep with the overall decline in our economy…2009 was the worse year since the Great Depression.
Dig a tiny bit deeper into the numbers and you’ll see a marvelous thing. While… Read the rest- 15 June 2025
- Category: Foundations,Trends in Fundraising
- 0 Comment
- Written by: Ann Goldman