For Impact

Our Beliefs

These are our first principles, tested and proven,
again and again.

Impact Drives Income

The SIZE and SCOPE of your IMPACT DETERMINES the SIZE and SCOPE of your INCOME. Not the other way around.

For 30 years, we’ve brought fundraising teams and organizational cultures along with this point of view to realize, THIS ISN’T ABOUT THE MONEY. (Or about fundraising, development, soliciting people for money or anything else you do under the guise of “raising money.”)

Impact demands, drives and determines income. If you can clearly, concisely and compellingly convey your purpose, you get more money. And more money equals greater impact! Is it really this simple? Yes. Does this mean you’re doing almost everything wrong? Perhaps.

Keep It Simple

Just Ask! This is THE fundraising secret.

Just Ask is permission to move. Nothing happens until you ask! Until you ask — one-on-one — the message is not personal, people don’t know how they can help and a prospect can’t say YES!

Just Ask is about simplicity. No more special events. Simplify your message. Focus on your best prospects. With a change in perspective, Just Ask isn’t about the money. It’s about presenting the opportunity to save, change, and impact lives.

Commit to Sales

NOTHING HAPPENS UNLESS YOU’RE OUT SELLING.

All of you are deeply committed to your CAUSE and your ORGANIZATION, yet many of you have never been TRAINED IN SALES! (We’ve made a commitment to help more organizations and development professionals embrace SALES.)

To us, SALES is an ATTITUDE. A CULTURE. GOALS and a PROCESS. And a COMMITMENT to being out of the office, engaging with prospects 1:1.

You’re Always in a Campaign

A campaign is a time to get very serious about building and maximizing relationships. A campaign has a goal and a plan. A campaign is a story.

This begs a question, when would we not want to be doing these things? Through this lens we should always be in a campaign. We should always embrace this focused intensity for telling our story… for engaging others… for change… for results. For Impact.

Culture Is How You Work

“We want to build a culture of philanthropy.”

Nonprofit leaders often use this phrase as a way of saying that they want this ‘fundraising thing’ to work in some reliable, resilient, and aligned way across all stakeholders.

To get to this place let’s think about ‘culture’ and what it takes to build this desired culture. We define culture as: how you work. It’s the system of behaviors that you define, encode, and reinforce. With this in mind we often describe ‘culture’ as an operating system.

To build a culture, you need to:

  • Define the work (model);
  • Hire/train/align the right people for that way of working; and
  • Support that way of working with the proper tools.

Impact Drives Everything

(Not just income)

The origin of this phrase comes from our work in the field and sector, but it really is a universal principle.

Impact drives happiness. Impact drives meaning. Impact drives fulfillment. Impact drives engagement!

FOR IMPACT reflects our PHILOSOPHY of life and business.