THE FLYWHEEL EFFECT: Organizational Branding at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

by Eddie Thompson | Oct 9, 2019 | Development Management, Donor Communications

Over the last few months I’ve posted several articles on Jim Collins’ follow-up supplement to his best-seller—the 35-page booklet entitled Good to Great and the Social Sectors. Collins introduces the fifth Good-to-Great principle for nonprofits with this proposition:...

FORWARD-THINKING PHILANTHROPY: Focusing on Outputs Over Inputs

by Eddie Thompson | Aug 26, 2019 | Development Management, Donor Communications

Over the last few months (March & April) I posted a couple of articles on Jim Collins’ follow-up supplement to his best-seller—the 35-page booklet entitled Good to Great and the Social Sectors. In those previous posts (GETTING THE RIGHT PEOPLE ON THE BUS and...

IN THE MIDST OF A STORM: How Nonprofits Can Survive and Excel in Hard Times 

by Eddie Thompson | Jul 29, 2019 | Development Management, Donor Communications

My previous post, “Weathering the Storms,” covered practice-management strategies to employ during good times that tend to harden nonprofits against three types of hard times: 1) economic recessions that universally impact all donors and their giving capacities; 2)...

THE POWER OF PERSONAL SOLICITATION: A New York Murder, Faked Seizures, and Six-person Juries

by Eddie Thompson | Feb 22, 2019 | Development Management, Donor Communications

I sat in a room yesterday with a group of development officers from a large and well-known international organization. This fantastic team makes an enormous impact on the lives of families in need. Since the majority of the funds they raise comes from special events,...

PENT UP GENEROSITY: Enabling the Felt-need to Give

by Cayce Powell | Jan 28, 2019 | Donor Communications

P. Cayce Powell joined Thompson & Associates in 1999 with an M.B.A. and J.D. from Texas Tech University. He now serves as President, working from the national headquarters in Nashville. I’ve met a lot of extraordinarily generous givers over the years, many of...

FUNDRAISING SIMPLICITY: The Paralysis of Self-imposed Complexity

by Eddie Thompson | Dec 13, 2018 | Development Management, Donor Communications

As I visit and have conversations with nonprofit leadership teams, I’ve noticed an increasing trend in organizational practices. We’re making fundraising excessively complicated. It’s true that fundraising can be difficult. However, a good advancement system is not...