Welcome to Real Deal Fundraising

Welcome to Real Deal Fundraising!

I started this blog to share lessons and reflections on the profession of fundraising. My goal is to share practical tactics and training information for you to grow your career in fundraising and best serve the institutions where you are employed.

Here's an overview of the weekly features I have planned: 

Motivation Mondays - Content to get you re-energized about being a fundraiser
Tuesday's Tip - Work productivity hacks
In Depth Wednesday - A "deep dive" into one fundraising training topic 
Thoughts for Thursday - My reflections on some big picture issue in the non-profit and philanthropy world
FUNdraising Friday - Memes, Funny videos and other ideas to keep all you fundraisers smiling

For my In Depth posts, I want to start by posting content to help phonathon managers. I think phonathon is an area where people enter into the world of development and often there is little training provided for these newbies. It turns into a "sink-or-swim" environment. I hope that this blog will be a life jacket to help new phone managers stay afloat and grow into productive development professionals.

But in my other weekly posts, I'll be touching on everything from annual giving to planned giving and from donor relations to travel planning for major gift officers. My career started in phonathon, as a student caller my freshman year of college, and it is close to my heart. I have since worked in nearly every area of development and currently serve as Vice President for Advancement at Starr King School for the Ministry.

I am a Certified Fundraising Executive who has worked in fundraising for nearly 17 years (12 of that full time). I worked with RuffaloCODY (now Ruffalo Noel Levitz) and the University of South Carolina for five years, and then returned to my alma mater (the University of Southern Mississippi) to administer a comprehensive annual giving program. In one year, we increased the total dollars raised by over 300%, and in three years we increased the number of first-time donors by 285%. During my tenure, the total number of yearly donors to the USM Foundation increased from about 3,000 to over 8,000. In 2012, we launched the first faculty-staff giving campaign for USM, and employee giving rose from 10% to over 32% in three months. I am the real deal!

I hope you'll sign up for my mailing list and join in the conversation here. 
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Thanks for visiting this blog! I hope you'll come back often.

- Jessica

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