I’m finally reading Grant Cardone’s The 10X Rule after so many people have told me to read it. It’s great.

Here’s the big bold statement I 100% agree with . . .

“Biggest mistake people make is not setting their goals and targets high enough.” —Grant Cardone

Can you really grow your visibility and start attracting funders on LinkedIn?

Well, I've invited my colleague and friend, Bofta Yimam, to walk us through how she approaches this exact thing! (Cause this is what she does!)

Bofta will be hosting:

The Game Changer On LinkedIn (Infusing Storytelling to Maximize Your Content and Attract Large Donors)

We'll do this on Thursday, May 9th at 10:00 am CT in a short 30-minute intensive followed by a 15-minute Q & A.

This week I had the privilege of being on the Philanthropy Masterminds Series webcast with my client and colleague, Yamilee Toussaint, Founder and CEO of STEM From Dance! You are all familiar with this great series hosted by Donorsearch and Jay Frost.

We talked about BIG visions, BIG growth, and BIG donations. ← Yamilee is the Queen of this BTW.

For too long the nonprofit sector has told everyone that fundraising is about setting a goal, one time.

You know…What’s your Gala goal? What’s your Giving Tuesday goal? What’s the Campaign goal? What’s your Golf Outing goal?

What’s worse is teams and even boards become obsessed with hitting these types of goals way more than reaching the overall annual need of the organization.

The other day I was thinking through my decade-plus of clients and reflecting on what the leaders whose nonprofits scaled at a higher rate were doing differently. There were a few distinct themes separating those who were aggressively scaling vs. moderately growing.

Happy April! And for some of you that means it’s budgeting season for July FY starts. My favorite time of year!

Now, if you want to grow tremendously over the next few years, make sure you’re not letting the tone and invisible scripts of the nonprofit sector underestimate what you’re capable of.

CEOs - There are two words that just might be keeping your board and development team from fully funding your nonprofit's budget every year.

Those two words?

STRETCH BUDGET

One of the hardest pieces of advice for fundraisers to take from me? . . .

Slow down.

You won’t secure a donor’s best gift if you rush. And that's what we're focused on….best gift, every year. For me, that's an unrestricted gift with high levels of flexibility.

I had a conversation with a forward-thinking nonprofit leader recently, and her words struck a chord with me. "When I bring a new idea to my board or development team, it feels like an uphill battle to convince them of its financial feasibility."

Ever been there?

There’s a lot of excitement when your organization receives a large general operating gift . . . initially.

The hope and anticipation of how that gift will change the trajectory of growth—and all the possibilities of where that money COULD go.

You want to do what’s right and make the biggest impact . . . perhaps you’ve been told that means it should go directly to programs.

Well, not so fast.