Something has got to give

This blog is keeping me awake at night lately. It feels like I'm letting you down by not updating it frequently enough. The good news is there are a lot of fairly decent articles that people seem to have enjoyed already here. If you are new to this blog you may want to click through. The links are below.

For now I'm giving myself permission to not worry about this blog for awhile. My focus is needed elsewhere.

My new job.

It is going well, I'm learning a lot and I love it. As you know with any senior management fundraising position there is a lot to do. Especially when you start in the fall and you need to take advantage of year end giving. There is also planning for 2010 to do. Learning how to use the coffee machine is important too.

SOFII

SOFII is transforming the way we learn and share our work. For two years that website has helped me raise more money, stay inspired and learn about fundraising in other parts of the world. So I want to give back a bit. SOFII is about to relaunch a new website. Before we do that we need to raise about $80,000. My volunteer priority is to help SOFII reach more fundraisers by becoming self sustaining. You may want to give back too by making SOFII one of the top three charities you support? We are here for you.

I also promised a couple articles to people and have a few conference sessions to do. (The next one is at AFP Toronto Congress so be sure to say hi. I'll also be speaking at AFP International in April and would be happy to see you there too.)

By taking a break from the self imposed pressures of this blog I hope to set an example for you. As a fundraiser you can't single handedly reach the UN Development goals for 2015, by yourself! Its better to scale back and do what you do well.

But don't fret dear reader, there is still a lot here to dig into. Here are the few posts that stirred up the most controversy or received the most responses.

How to respond to the economic crisis

Are there too many consultants as speakers at conferences? (blog of the month last year in Professional Fundraising Magazine)


Get out of your comfort zone

How to become your organizations competitive edge


Is $400K a fair salary for AFP?


2008 Best of Learning List

My all time personal favourite though is:

The seven key ingredient to building a successful organization

When I started it about one year ago it was simply to learn how to blog and how to write. The fact that you pop in to read it, share it and comment on it is exceeding my expectations so thank you! I'll be back in the New Year with a new best of learning list.

Thank you for spending time here.