Optimism
by Lee Snelling

Remembering the "why" in what we do

You may find this hard to believe, but I did not grow up aspiring to be a fundraiser. Shocking, I know. I have spent the last 14 years of my career in higher education fundraising and during that time I have asked myself several times ‘how…
Agriculture Fundraising Inspiration
by Elizabeth Elmore

Ag Inspiration from Iowa State and Tennessee

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Laura Wilkerson in CAES invited me to help judge the National Agricultural Alumni and Development Association (NAADA) Publications and Projects competition this spring. A few submissions left me inspired and I thought I would share with others…
Nashville skyline
by Chantel Dunham

Unexpected Connections: Alumni Links to an Historic Preacher and Nashville Legends

I wrote this article for the Libraries’ magazine, Beyond the Pages, to illustrate all the different ways we can engage alumni and friends as we truly seek to understand what inspires our potential donors. There are so many collectors out there…
Development at the Herty Fountain
by Kathy Bangle

Put Yourself Last

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I learned a few grammar rules outside the classroom. When I was a child, my mother would implore my brothers and me to “put yourself last.”  Yes, my mother likely meant this statement to have double impact. She insisted on our being kind…
LifeCycleofaGift-image1
by Jane Barghothi

The Life Cycle of a Gift

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Bringing a gift to fruition from beginning to end is often a full team effort. It includes multiple departments, colleagues and activity and happens over time – sometimes months, sometimes years. The following story describes the team effort…
We Commit
by Jane Barghothi

10 Things I Wish I Had Known Before Becoming a Frontline Fundraiser

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Do you ever look back on the first few years of your career as a fundraiser and say to yourself, “Did I really do that?” I have multiple times, whether it was making an assumption about a donor or over-researching a prospect before picking…