Blog posts from June 2015

Four Things That Happen When a Young Professional Takes the Lead
All too often young professionals are relegated to leading a social media project or developing a bake sale fundraising strategy and aren’t given the opportunity to flex their true leadership muscles. As a result, many young professionals don’t feel prepared or confident to take the lead when the moment strikes.
Next Week at Foundation Center (June 29-July 3)
Here's what we have coming up next week.

Book Review: 'The Social Profit Handbook'
Review of The Social Profit Handbook: The Essential Guide to Setting Goals, Assessing Outcomes, and Achieving Success for Mission-Driven Organizations (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2015) by David Grant, former president and CEO of the New Jersey-based Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation.

4 Steps to Identifying Your Key Messages
Why might a well-rounded, thoughtful organization struggle to attract the kind of support they needed to stay afloat? It could be a matter of knowing too much.

How to Identify Prospects in a Small Shop
When it comes to identifying prospects, many otherwise intelligent people enter the world of the Sugar Plum Fairy.

Start-Up Roadblocks: Top Fundraising Pitfalls of Social Entrepreneurs
Social entrepreneurs often end up wasting precious time running after unrealistic funding opportunities and knocking on doors that will never open instead of investing their energies in more effective approaches. If you want to get a social venture off the ground, here are a few common fundraising pitfalls to avoid.

What is Your Sacred Bundle? Evaluation and Storytelling
Nonprofits benefit by storing in their “sacred bundles” nuggets of wisdom gained from the important program assessment data they gather. The key is to identify — from among the many possibilities — what is most significant.
Next Week at Foundation Center (June 15-19)
Here's what we have coming up next week.

GrantCraft Launches Two New Resources
Jen Bokoff, Director of Foundation Center's GrantCraft, discusses two new publications available for free on the GrantCraft site. Communication That Counts focuses on South African funding, and 21st-Century Community Foundations looks at the future of community foundations.

Nonprofit Legal Audit Checklist
Is your nonprofit's legal house in order? Review this checklist from Carrie Garber Siegrist, an Associate in Venable's Nonprofit Organizations and Political Law Practice Groups.