Planning: Strategic or Tactical?

/

Are you putting the cart before the horse?

Whether your ultimate goal is a solid marketing plan, a sound fund development plan, or, even more broadly, an overall direction for your organization for the next three years, it’s important to consider the significant differences between strategic planning and tactical planning. Both have a place, but one comes before the other – that is, if you hope to continue moving forward on a clear path toward a meaningful goal without a lot of costly side trips and unforeseen rerouting.

Read More

Lets Take Stock

/

How about an update on some recent Speakeasy themes?

I suggest we take a few minutes today to revisit some of our favorite topics over the past few weeks and see what’s new. Here are ten rather interesting random “updates” I encountered quite by accident:

1.     I saw a glimpse of The Essential Hillary Clinton which included video from many years ago.

Read More

Presenters and Speakers: Be careful!

/

Don't sabotage your own presentation.

Recently I had the pleasure of sitting in on an excellent presentation about aging. It was co-presented by two highly qualified, very experienced women – professionals in every sense of the word. They split their presentation time, each taking on half the job. The first speaker broke the three rules that I consider absolutely basic, beginner-level advice. The second one offered a polished, accessible, engaging presentation that was a pure pleasure to watch. So what were the three basic differences between these two presentations?

Read More

The Authentic Fund Support Partnership

/

Partners or Vendors?

Do you ever walk down the street when you’re visiting an unfamiliar city and catch sight of some forlorn looking vendor with a mobile display of goods that are of mild curiosity but not of real interest? The poor fellow makes eye contact, and you easily see that he’s trying to hide his desperation for a sale behind a sad smile. He’s just a “vendor” – doesn’t really belong here, has no right to consider you his target market. That's a vendor, not a partner.

Read More

Why the $10 word, folks?

/

The little one is the better choice.

Everyone should have a friend with whom they can silently roll their eyes, in unison, while politely listening to a speaker who chooses overstuffed words that, one would suppose, are meant to indicate intelligence, sophistication, or such. My friend-in-eye-rolling is Sharon Green, and I’ve got to tell you, Sharon’s got way more English language creds than I do. (That said, I can roll my eyes with the best of them.)

Read More

Retain your Customer Base

/

But don't expect the work to do itself.

I think we all agree on this: It is less costly and more profitable to retain the customers you have than to convert new ones. Everyone says it, and I think we all believe it. But do we pay only lip service to it?  With competition for attention, money and loyalty, it behooves every company, association and nonprofit to consciously work to retain their current customers.

Read More

"Was" or "Were" - It's more than just numbers

/

It's also mood!

You may be forgiven if you no longer remember what Sister Mary Madonna said about “subjunctive mood.” Why, I haven’t had a conversation about subjunctive mood for at least 15 years; I’m pretty sure you haven’t either. But you might sometimes wonder whether your verb should be “was” or “were.” Your first instinct, probably, is to ask whether it’s singular or plural, and that’s smart. (Joe was a baker. His two brothers were bricklayers.) But there’s more to it than that – and it’s a guideline you can learn without using any arcane verbiage.

Read More