My Brush with a Real-Life Fundraising Disaster
Posted by Jim Berigan on 11 Jul 2008 in: Bad Ideas, Fundraising Horror Stories
For the past seven months, I have been writing very regularly on the best ways to raise money for your school. I’ve offered advice on how to connect with your community, so that you can have the most productive fundraisers possible. I’ve written thousands of words on this subject. So, I think it would be fair to say that I have fundraising on the brain.
Therefore, it is not surprising that I had as strong a reaction as I did last night when I found myself, as an innocent bystander, in a real-life fundraising disaster.
(For the sake of not hurting anyone’s feelings, I will not divulge any of the details about this organization.)
Recently, I signed my four year old daughter and my five year old daughter up for a sports-related activity. They had never pursued this kind of activity before, and they were quite excited. Last night was the fourth meeting of this group. continue reading
When you are involved with a non-profit, it seems that every conversation starts and ends with the need to raise money. You’re either discussing how much you need to raise, how much you are currently raising, or how much was raised in the past.
Previous to my current role as blogger at Top School Fundraisers, I was working at a non-profit summer camp for boys. Like many summer camps it has a strong tradition and long history. In fact, I, myself, was a camper there for five years, before I became a staff member. In total, I was at the camp 24 years, from the time I was 10 years old until I was 34. I told people my mom just never came to pick me up.

