Current Blogs
For the past several years, Cause Effective has highlighted Ida B. Wells in our workshop trainings because Wells was a forceful communications strategist and fundraiser. She saw communications as an essential tool to move social change. She understood the power in reporting the truth about the violence and discrimination that African Americans experienced at the hands of White supremacists.
I think deeply – and often – about my role in bringing about the world we want to live in. What I don’t think about as much is how to nurture the “we” in bringing about this vision. My sabbatical during the month of September was both a chance for me to re-charge – and an opportunity for the Cause Effective team to spread its wings.
How often do we treat a Board of Directors as a collective entity – grouped by requirements, rules, expectations, and accountability?
Three years ago, we launched the Cause Effective Fellows Program: Advancing Leaders of Color in Fundraising with the intention of strengthening a diverse pipeline of leaders in the nonprofit sector. As we come to the close of this year’s cohort of 16 dynamic development professionals, we have now worked with 41 Fellows at some of the most well-respected social justice and human rights nonprofits in the country.
As Black History Month comes to an end for 2022 and we launch into Women’s History Month, Cause Effective reflects on the complicated history of people of color and philanthropy. Inspired by the Madam C.J. Walker’s Gospel of Giving: Black Women’s Philanthropy during Jim Crow, Cause Effective will be dedicating space through our work to highlight our incredible clients. Most notably, we are reflecting on how they have been resourcing their communities. The rich history of identity-based philanthropy and fundraising, and female-led philanthropy, lives within these innovative, mission-driven, community centric organizations.
Imagine the last year and a half – with all we’ve experienced living through this unprecedented pandemic. Now imagine every time you saw or heard about a nonprofit organization in action -- providing emergency shelters, handing out groceries, pivoting to virtual learning, advocating for immigrant rights, and mental health care.
Can you imagine this period in time without the lifesaving and life-transforming services that these nonprofits provide every day to people throughout the world? The nonprofit sector is, indeed, the epitome of care.
Selected Blog Posts by Topic:
Current Newsletters
March 2019: Is Your Fundraising Recession-Proof?
Fundraising through a crisis is never fun, but it can be done. Cause Effective saw many clients continue to succeed in fundraising during the Great Recession, but they had laid the groundwork for continued support years before. Read more.
January 2019: Human vs. Machine: The Value of In-Person Training
Has an executive director's job become easier as a result of all the online information on nonprofit management right at their fingertips? Maybe yes, maybe no. Executive directors need information, but also thought partnership, empathy and peer support to find the best solutions to their organization's most entrenched challenges. Read more.
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“Cause Effective helped us change our board’s leadership and culture – and has continued as a valued resource to this day.”
– Naomi Goldberg Haas, Artistic Director, Dances for a Variable Population