From the Edge

Who Wants to Be a Partner? 25 First Moves for Nonprofits

If the thought of collaborating has appeal for you, but you don’t know how to start, here are 25 suggestions by Karen Eber Davis lifted from Texas Nonprofits’ e-newsletter of February 22nd.

Why Don’t We Collaborate?

One of the issues that always faces us in philanthropic activities is that of collaboration. My question about this is, Why do our organizations resist collaborating?

San Antonio Fun Raising

My one-day journey to San Antonio with Jana Mullins of Rockwell Fund and my colleague Shuchi Sharma was both filling and fun. Trips to San Antonio often are.
                The local chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals invited Jana and me to lunch with 60-plus members, asking that we reimburse them by sharing our stories and maybe a lesson or two garnered during our years of nonprofit work.

San Antonio in January

On behalf of Edge, I’m taking my show on the road. Next month I’ll be going to San Antonio to speak at the lunch meeting of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. I’m elated.

Looking for Mr. Goodword: Researching Foundations and Their Roles as Communicators

Greetings. I have been asked to start a Blog thread that traces my research on the topic of Philanthropic Foundations and Their Strategies for Communication. I know very little about this – having only written two foundation web sites and not much more – and so am very interested in expanding my mind.

What I’m Thinking: A Good Example of a Bad Thing

"My upbringing has taught me that it is more important to give than to receive,” I had explained to my room full of nonprofit workers. “I’ve learned to question that teaching. And, after a lot of thought, I  now contend that giving and receiving are two halves of a single act."

An Alternative Paradigm for Nonprofits, Pt. V: The Challenge is Competition

Not long before my partner and I decided to devote Edge Creative to serving altruistic organizations, I learned that Houston was home to 10,000 nonprofits. Ten thousand!

I naturally thought, “What a rich palette of colors with which to create a future! How can this not be great?”

An Alternative Paradigm for Nonprofits, Pt. II “Be Interesting or Be Absent.”

If your email box is like mine, then a lot of junk collects there. And a fair amount comes from nonprofits to which I have contributed money, volunteered time or otherwise showed support. I read it all, but then that’s my business. Most working people are unlike me. They delete more than they read. They go the way of incentives to order Xanax, Cialis and Levitra — no prescription needed.

Run Into the Roar.

Before this year ends, thousands of nonprofits will close their doors forever. In far to many instances, the reason for their closures will not be the weakened economy, but their responses to it. They’ll have hunkered down as if they were facing a Gulf hurricane. Truth is, what’s coming is climate change.