How to track emotional, intellectual, and creative presence—and what to do when it fades You can run a donor meeting with perfect structure, sharp analysis, and plenty of rapport—and still walk out with nothing real. Not because the conversation went badly. Because it never quite came alive. The donor was polite. Curious, even. But they… Continue reading Reading the Room

[AI-assisted as I needed to get these out.] Most fundraising frameworks stop at tactics: what to say, when to follow up, how to write the perfect deck. But great fundraising isn’t just persuasion—it’s relationship design. You’re not just trying to “get to yes.” You’re trying to create a durable, reciprocal, and generative relationship between a… Continue reading Why People Give, What Makes Them Stay, and How It All Pays Off

[AI-assisted as I need to get these out for folks.] Fundraising is sales at its most demanding form. It sells conviction, not product—and shared purpose, not possession. It’s a design practice: the deliberate structuring of exchanges so that trust, authorship, and alignment happen by design rather than by chance. When it’s done well, it feels… Continue reading The Five Rules for Raising Money