Success Story: Guadalupe Home & School Club Boosts Walkathon Donations with Online Fundraising

“Online is truly the way to reach out to publicize your event and…to maximize your efforts.” – Marty Lux, Principal (2009-2010) Guadalupe Elementary, like many other public schools, relies heavily on parent support to fund Art, Music, and Technology programs. Its parent organization, the Home & School Club, is responsible for all aspects of fundraising, [...]

Risk and Reward: Getting Out of the Fundraising Box

April 15, 2013 by Suzanne Oehler Education Fundraising Nonprofit Online fundraising Tech Stuff

Nonprofit and fundraising circles are buzzing about the TEDTalk by Dan Pallotta that proposes we flip the current mindset of the nonprofit world on its axis to seize opportunities that bring the benefits the for-profit world sees – like highly skilled employees with pay commensorate with the level of work they do. He proposes that [...]

Create Conversation

April 1, 2013 by Suzanne Oehler Community Fundraising Just for Inspiration Nonprofit

One of my fav quotes of all time is from Daniel Pink: “Conversation by conversation. That’s how the world changes.” Conversation is valuable because it can lead to nowhere or to anywhere. You don’t know until you go for it. Whether you work for a nonprofit organization, the local coffee shop or a high tech [...]

Avoid Volunteer Burnout: 4 Rules

March 22, 2013 by Suzanne Oehler Nonprofit

That sinking feeling has set in. The eery silence when the question comes, “Who can take on this responsibility?”. Everybody in the room looks down, waiting for someone else to raise their hand and say enthusiastically, “I’ll do it!”. But you can hear crickets chirping and all of a sudden, without warning, your hand goes [...]

Get real: The business side of charity

February 7, 2013 by Suzanne Oehler Arts Fundraising Nonprofit

I’m OK with the status quo…if it works. But around me too often I see “good enough”, and it makes my skin crawl. When the work cause organizations do is so much a part of our world, why would it be acceptable to “just get by”? I recently met with a nonprofit providing arts to [...]

Fundraising for Charity on Kids’ Terms (repost)

January 30, 2013 by Suzanne Oehler Education Fundraising

I wrote this blog story for Fundly about a year ago. I’ve been reminded recently how important it is to teach kids about giving and how much they can teach us about giving, too. So here’s a little refresher, based on my experience exploring with elementary school kids the true meaning of “sharing”. View the original [...]

3 Important Things I Learned Giving “Citizen Grants”

January 11, 2013 by Suzanne Oehler Arts Education Fundraising Nonprofit

I recently awarded two grants for ideas in arts education through my social enterprise, Yapper Girl. I did it because I could and because I realized that even a small amount of funding can put great ideas in arts education into motion. In short, here’s what I learned the first time around: 1. Anyone can [...]

Best 6 “Remote Offices” for a Silicon Valley Consultant

January 7, 2013 by Suzanne Oehler Just for Fun

When you’re a consultant, you can feel a bit like a nomad. One minute you’re in your client’s office building, the next you’re back at the home office. Between meetings you seek out any warm chair with a cup of Joe and free WIFI. And finding a place to meet a colleague or potential client [...]

10 Ways to Prevent Supporter “Unsubscribe”: Delete the Money Pitch, Nonprofits!

December 28, 2012 by Suzanne Oehler Fundraising Nonprofit

Please, please, please don’t let this be you. Yet another nonprofit email came across today with “make a donation” in the subject line. And in case I wasn’t clever enough by then to figure out they wanted my money, the organization stated it (with a link) 4 more times in the body of that email [...]