
What is on your donors' and volunteers' wish lists?
What is on your wish list this holiday season? A few years ago, I got into the habit of keeping running wish lists on Amazon and Evernote. It used to be that my mom would ask me for my Christmas wish list around mid-October. I could never think of anything on the spot. Now, I just point her to my Amazon wish list. Or, for things that she can't buy on Amazon, I send her some ideas from my Evernote list. My sisters are great about keeping their Amazon wish lists current and tha

Sometimes you need to get smaller to grow bigger
About three months ago, I became executive director for a little nonprofit called Voices for Earth Justice. After four years of contract project management for big nonprofits, I was eager to get back to the kind of high-impact local work a small nonprofit can do. Voices for Earth Justice formed in 2002 when two Catholic women, Patty and Sister Janet, saw that nobody was helping the faith community engage in environmental issues. Over the next 15 years, Patty and Sister Janet

Use Amazon to make a holiday gift guide for your supporters (and get money from Amazon Smile)
Amazon has a new feature that can help your small nonprofit raise more money from Amazon Smile this holiday season. Amazon's new Idea List feature allows your small nonprofit to create its own holiday gift-buying guide and share it with your supporters. For example, I set up an eco-friendly and Fair Trade gifts guide for my nonprofit, Voices for Earth Justice. As of now, it has about 70 items on it. I like the idea of making my own gift-buying guide for three reasons: I'm hel