We announced last week that we are launching Good Advice Over Coffee (a monthly one-hour small group gathering of community cause champions) and asked you to rank your choice of discussion topics and reserve your seat. THANK YOU to all who responded! We now have a full house for our first one next Thursday, April 11th, 8AM-9AM at Common Desk in Fort Worth, but we have started a waiting list, so simply reply to this email or email Scott Smith to add your name.
As part of our 25th year anniversary, we are launching Good Advice Over Coffee, an opportunity for a small group of like-minded cause champions to gather over a cup of coffee once a month to discuss topics that are key to our work together to advance community causes. We'll discuss matters that are in Project Partners' areas of expertise but we recognize that we'll learn as much from the conversation as anyone. We can't wait!
I had the privilege to facilitate a working session last month of a group of concerned citizens, community and corporate leaders, all planning to work together to directly affect an important community issue. As we worked through 1) how this collaboration might be beneficial to them all and 2) how they could most effectively make a difference, I was reminded of a presentation on coalition-building I heard when on a United Way/Fort Worth Chamber community advocacy for education assignment, funded by the Gates Foundation.
I presented the "Marketing and Communications for Fundraising & Development" module for the CFRE review course last summer, sponsored by the Dallas and Fort Worth chapters of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP). Much of the emphasis of this particular module is the concept that our marketing and communications for fundraising and development must be donor-centric, but what does that really mean?
Too many times, I see boxes of beautiful collateral materials for events, marketing, outreach or fundraising campaigns happily living on the floors of agency storage rooms and offices. Thousands of dollars worth of materials never see the light of day. Are they helping to move the organization's mission forward?
