The Little Words Mean the Most

NPO pro development w/ solar hula

Hilary Mantel knows exactly.

Theology isn't all that hard

How I prioritize projects

We eat nasty nasturtiums every day in our salads

Dedicated to Carol Scott's cataract surgery.

In today's mail bag

Dear Mr Ahern,
 
On behalf of Plymouth University, I am delighted to invite you to attend a University Reception at the House of Lords on Friday 24th July 2015 at 18.30, kindly hosted by Baroness Wilcox.

The evening will be an opportunity to hear about our achievements and future plans and ambitions. It will also be a chance to meet fellow friends and alumni of our University.

It would be an honour to host you at this reception. Places are limited to 200....

Scoring of JOY and NEED in a donor newsltr, HUGE charity

If your boss or your board chair or even you! believe this ratio works well ... oops.

I'm writing a novella where a nanny-cam is the narrator

I watch. I don’t judge. I see. I don’t care.

It IS this simple

moderating breezes

Sean Triner and Tom Ahern announce 360º "audit-oscopy" product

 

Of course we don't have any clients yet.

Simone and I stayed with Sean and Christiana in February. Legendary visit, too. A new farmer's market every day.

"I've been doing a lot of audits lately," he said.

It was late night. You look up a lot. The stars in subtropical eastern Australia shine hard as lasers; almost painful. We sat on an unlighted lawn, near the archery target, near the pineapple nursery, yards of our exposed skin heavily misted in bug repellent. You chemical-up here, even if you're a vegan: only way to go outside, really. Native Australian wildlife rustled around us; Sean is a certified venomous snake rescuer (spot the contradiction in that title). World musician Xavier Rudd lives next door; he was tucked in, too.

Sean and I had just returned from the pub. It had been for this nosy tourist a most extraordinary ordinary experience. Christiana and Simone were long asleep and exploring dreamland. "The lads" were reluctant to turn in. We fetched ourselves fresh drinks.

Started with fundraising industry gossip, then moved on to exchanging embarrassing family secrets.

"Me, too!" I said. About the audits.

Something's shaking the foundations. Major nonprofits are tuning up their engines.

Recent audit-type clients for Tom include Save the Children (US), UNHCR (US), Oxfam (AU), Harlem RBI (NYC) and Animal Rescue League of Boston. Tom focuses on messaging and donor-centricity ... and making considerably more money (yeah, that's pretty much a promise) from existing donors by changing the way the organization talks.

Sean is the brilliantly empathetic co-founder of Pareto, Australia's biggest direct mail and telephone fundraising firm. Sean graduated in maths. Is annoyingly analytical. Knows his data inside and out, so he's right all the time. Tender side, too. Geek dominatrix. His part of the audit reads all your org.'s relevant meters. Then he shows you exactly what you're doing well or ill in your mass fundraising.

But, as I say, we have ZERO clients for our 360-degree "audit-oscopy" product at this moment.

Consider yourself announced to. There's never been anything like this on earth before.