March 2019

Artificial intelligence can help you write appeals, find new donors, figure out how much to ask for, and prioritize tasks.

Big advances in fundraising are closer than you might think — like sophisticated chatbots that answer potential supporters’ questions. Or artificial intelligence that can predict which issues will most likely resonate with a particular donor.

The company wants to accelerate the work of its grantees and hopes the experience with inspire its own employees to create more inclusive products.

Fundraisers often struggle to find time to cultivate donors who want to leave a legacy. Here’s what a public radio station, an aid charity, and an advocacy group are doing to jump-start their efforts.

After learning about a $10 million bequest, Seattle broadcaster KEXP got serious about locking down commitments from its longtime listeners.

Rami Nashashibi is skilled at organizing people from different backgrounds, and grant makers are taking notice.

Make people feel respected. Embrace your Identity. Celebrate success.

With an average age of 70 for its donors, Catholic Relief Services took a hard look at its database and found potential planned gifts.

Rami Nashashibi explains how he tackled longstanding complaints about some of the few successful businesses in Chicago’s downtrodden South Side: corner grocery stores owned by Muslim immigrants.

The nonprofit Compassion & Choices relies on trustees, program staff members, and others to remind donors and activists about planned giving.

In other news about people in philanthropy, the Skoll Foundation names a new president and Michelle Obama’s former policy director has been named CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service.

Lily, a bilingual seven-year-old muppet with no fixed address, is among the growing cast of characters the program features who represent children dealing with a variety of circumstances.

Isa Catto, who heads her family’s foundation, says that though she is the key decision maker, men often direct their attention to her husband.

A hospital’s fundraising-solicitation schedule provides a lesson for many nonprofits: Don’t take too long to ask for donations.

Nearly every nonprofit wants a placement in the New York Times, but here’s one that likes coverage in the Onion, too.

Live online video can be effective for raising money and telling stories, and more big charities are getting in the game, nonprofit fundraisers say.

A woman who leads a family foundation shares experiences in which men exclude, overlook, or condescend to women. She calls on donors to help end sexism in philanthropy and cautions nonprofits that failure to do so could affect the bottom line.

With far more development positions than people to fill them, some organizations are casting a net outside the field. Here’s how to vet a nontraditional candidate.

Start small, consider how an experience will make a wealthy donor feel, and make it personal, say experts.

It will help you connect with people you can’t meet in person, will track a gift you make all the way to the recipients, and much more.

Words and images wield considerable power. All the more reason to get divergent views on communications that are the public face of an organization.

Versatile, collaborative, and multidisciplinary projects are what’s needed, yet too many foundations reject proposals that don’t fit neatly into specific grant-making programs.