Embarking on a major campaign can be intimidating. It is a huge, often multi-year endeavor, and you have just one chance to execute it properly. But there are tried and true methods to perfecting campaigns, and if your organization has not started a capital or endowment campaign recently, now is the time to seriously consider it. The campaign marketplace is ripe due to today’s philanthropic trends.

In my career as a fundraising and development professional and consultant, and as a mother myself, I have found so often that a mother’s best advice is development’s best advice. As moms, we have a little saying for everything to help our children remember the important life lessons we teach them, and many of these sayings work perfectly for adult development professionals looking for counsel or answers.

We’ve been talking about having a “culture of philanthropy” in the nonprofit world for a very long time. We’re still talking about it. But why? Why is it still so prevalent in the philanthropic conversation? Because we haven’t quite figured it out yet.

Far too often, it can be a comic and tragic reality that we mistake relationships for something we work to cultivate and not something we work to develop and nurture. Nonprofits do not have the luxury of being able to make this mistake.

It can be the best of years; it can be the worst of years, but 2022 is our year. What happens in the next 12 months is up to us to deal with, overcome, and hopefully we will celebrate the hand we are dealt. Without further ado, please enjoy my (foggy) crystal ball view of 2022.

Recently I have been reflecting and refreshing my perspective on Penelope Burk’s ongoing research dedicated to evidence-based approaches to donor retention and raising more money to support missions of nonprofit organizations throughout the world.