Charity law specialist Mark Blumberg doesn’t do individual pro bono work, unlike many of his professional colleagues. Instead he offers plain-language expertise to thousands of charities through his three-year-old website, GlobalPhilanthropy.ca.

“A lot of so-called ‘public information’ isn’t actually that accessible,” he says. “You can’t find it easily, and much of it is written at a very high level for people like tax litigators. That’s a gap I’ve tried to fill.”

While planning a successful “a-thon” may seem like a daunting task, preparation goes a long way. Last month, we looked at practical tips to help you get started with event planning. Now that you’re organized, let’s focus on strategies and tools for publicizing your fundraiser. Use these promotional tips to maximize engagement and tap into the power of social networking to ensure your next event is a fundraising success.

Get on calendars early

As soon as the event date is confirmed, mention it in any communication you send to donors. If thank you letters or emails are automatically generated, update the templates with your event’s information.

Does this sound like your ideal workday? You arrive at work, sit down in front of your to-do list and work calmly through each item in order. At the end of the day, you’ve finished every item on your list, and then you leave at a reasonable time.

“In your dreams!” as the saying goes. For most of us, “the modern workday is a minefield of unexpected tasks, problems, and requests that blow up at completely unpredictable times, often one right after the other,” says Work Smart columnist Gina Trapani.

That leads us to work erratically, responding to short-term, perceived or imposed urgency rather than a priority-based task plan. Before you know it, you’re caught in the “busy trap.” 

One of the first things that would-be priests or ministers are taught at seminary is the importance of listening. They’re constantly reminded that they were born with two ears, but only one mouth – that listening to parishioners is more important than talking at them.

Stephen Covey’s fifth habit of highly effective people is “seek first to understand, then to be understood.” Marriage counsellors probably most hear the phrase “he just doesn’t listen to me.” Buddhist monks grasp that praying is asking, while meditation is listening.

Great fundraising is defined by the quality of the relationships between charities and their donors. Great fundraisers know that human connections are more important than financial transactions. And great connections of any type start with really strong listening.

That headline isn’t mine. It’s the latest entry by one of my favourite bloggers, Jeff Brooks. He describes how American Airlines not only rejected helpful, professional-level input from a frustrated customer, but fired the one employee who took that input seriously.

And he’s being kind. Brooks found the story on TomorrowToday.com, where it’s headlined “Are Most Big Corporates Really Psychopaths?”

The saga should raise questions at all nonprofits about how they react to customer (donor) input and whether their culture impedes staff creativity. Here’s what happened.