by Eddie Thompson | May 30, 2013 | Donor Communications
It thrills and amazes me to witness individuals go through transformations with regard to their giving. Those transformations don’t happen that often, or that easily. Some might say (paraphrasing the Gospel of Mark), “It’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a...
by Eddie Thompson | May 8, 2013 | Donor Communications
No matter how masterful you are with facts and figures about your organization’s effectiveness, to move people to make institutional changing contributions you have to become a masterful storyteller. The right story to the right donor can make the difference between a...
by Eddie Thompson | Mar 21, 2013 | Donor Communications
I was put into a situation early in my fundraising career that became an unforgettable example of the power of a story to influence people and move them to action. As a development representative for David Lipscomb University, the Vice President assigned me the...
by Eddie Thompson | Feb 28, 2013 | Development Management, Donor Communications
In the last article I began describing the twelve characteristics of the most successful nonprofit organizations, which was based on my dissertation research at Vanderbilt University. The first six characteristics related to personal communications and the depth of...
by Eddie Thompson | Feb 1, 2013 | Donor Communications
As a student at Vanderbilt University over thirty years ago, I served as a graduate assistant to the Department of Educational Leadership. Vanderbilt was hosting a meeting of university presidents to discuss funding issues. In the late 1970s, and early 1980s, our...
by Eddie Thompson | Nov 25, 2012 | Donor Communications
I’ve spent thirty years meeting with donors from each non-profit institution I serve as a charitable estate planning consultant. Setting up estate plans that contain advanced structures and procedures is the easy part — almost incidental to the process. The most...
