Learning from One Another

April 09, 2014 By Ruthellen S. Rubin, CFRE

The topic of professional development comes up every day in my work with clients.  Many of the fundraising staff for whom I consult work in small shops with two or three professionals who raise money for their organizations.  Their daily schedule is jam-packed meeting deadlines, goals and donors.  The opportunities to get to know other fundraisers, to share what tools and strategies are working, are few and far between.

When I meet with nonprofit clients, my first recommendation is usually for them to make time to interact with fundraising peers - whether it's their contemporaries at similar type organizarions or others who fundraise in their community.  I advise them not to worry about these folks being competitors; fundraising is NOT a zero-sum game.  In fact, the better our colleagues do at raising money, the better we all do.

On April 17th, I'll be facilitating a half-day discussion at The Support Center in NYC on Technology for Fundraising:  Matching Today's Digital Resources with your Organization.  Join me and a like-minded group of your colleagues for a discussion of how fundraisers are integrating technology in their development strategy and learning how to make informed decisions when it comes to the latest tools.  

If in-person workshops like this are not available in your city, call up a few of your colleagues and go out for a beer.  The more we collaborate and learn from one another the better it will be for our own work product, our organizations' ability to deliver programs and services and the community as a whole.

For other professional development opportunities for fundraisers in New York City, visit Support Center/Partnership in Philanthropy  and New York University's Heyman Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising.