The Perfect Pair: Endowment and Immediate-Use Gifts

I noticed that a consistent leadership annual fund donor had stopped giving through the annual fund and instead had pledged to fund an endowment. He had the financial resources to continue his annual fund support as well, but he hadn’t, and I wondered why. Imagine my...

You Can’t Win the Race If You Are Looking Out of the Boat

After a brief stint on the crew team in college, I ended up serving as a rowing coach and coxswain for a local rowing club in my hometown for a little over a decade. Being the little person jammed into the “back” seat is about more than just yelling stuff, which is...

So Many Reasons Not to Give

It’s amazing that we raise as much money as we do, given the many reasons why people should not give. Read on to see the very special solicitation letter I created for my first April post.

“It’s Not You, It’s Me”

Seinfeld character George Costanza claimed to have coined the phrase “It’s not you, it’s me.”  He found that it came in handy when explaining why he wanted to break up with the person he was dating, hoping to make it easier on the soon-to-be ex by putting the blame...