I hope the first half of 2023 has been good to you.

I had two important public presenations earlier this year, and I look forward to hunkering down at my desk this summer, as I learn the constituent management platform BetterUnite and set up an entirely new database. And with my task ahead, this quote sums it up perfectly. Good advice for fundraisers!

Beware of the person who can’t be bothered by details.

William Feather (1889-1981)

Below are links to my two slide decks on ISSUU. You can also view video versions on my YouTube channel @CarolynAppleton.

February | “Old School Teaches New Lessons: How Technology is Preserving a WPA-Era Icon” for Friends of the Texas Historical Commission.

April | For Crescendo Interactive, “Technologies for Effective Capital Campaigns.”

I consider both presentations to be among my best. If you and your organization would benefit from your own tailored presentation along these lines, reach out by email.

Be Prepared

Separately, as a volunteer (since 2017), I have curated the Twitter feed of Citizens’ Climate Lobby Austin Metro Chapter @cclatx. That means I read about climate change constantly, and I learn about issues and activities globally.

Dinah Voyles Pulver recently wrote for USA Today about insurance cost projections for various areas of the United States when it comes to, “climate impacts.”

Economists, flood experts and others often consider which cities might be safest from climate change impacts in the long-term, considering factors such as flood risk, sustainability and preparation to make communities more resilient.

But safety is in the eye of beholder.

The truth is every place has its risks, said Steve Bowen, chief science officer and meteorologist with Gallagher Re, a global reinsurance broker.

Dinah Voyles Pulver for USA Today, May 23, 2023

This brought me back to my work just prior to COVID-19 lockdowns on nonprofit disaster preparation and recovery for TechSoup. I was part of a team that developed an online course funded by the Center for Disaster Philanthropy. My reasons for participating were first, my father was a professional emergency manager for a company in Southern California with more than 20,000 employees. From him I learned a great deal about preparedness.

Second, at the time I had been working with a nonprofit on the Gulf Coast recuperating from Hurricane Harvey. The nonprofit urgently needed to upgrade its internal systems and to learn how to keep going regardless of the storm’s negative impact on the community. My hands-on experience with tech, and my fundraising and communications mindset were a good fit.

You can access free downloadable documents to help you and your nonprofit prepare for and recuperate from disasters (including the course, which is modestly priced), via this link. I recommend them highly. And if your community would like an in-person session, with a little advance planning, I am sure TechSoup can help. You can also use my blog’s secure contact form to reach me. Our team hosted an in-person program in Houston, for example, and it was very productive. We had a full house.

Washington and ONE Campaign

On the horizon for me is a trip to Washington, D.C. in early June to attend the ONE Campaign Power Summit. This is an intensive educational program followed by visits on Capitol Hill with elected officials, to support ONE and its key initiatives, like PEPFAR.

I have been a ONE Campaign advocate for ten years. I first learned about ONE while attending a gathering in San Antonio featuring the late Michael Gerson of The Washington Post. I studied African literature long ago at The University of Texas at Austin, and I have a modest percentage of DNA from the Democratic Republic of Congo according to Ancestry.com. Back ca. 2012 when our nation was slowly recuperating from an economic decline, no one had the courage to launch a major gift campaign. I decided to revisit my earlier interests, while also learning how to use social media (both were smart decisions).

That was when I decided to publish my nonprofit fundraising and communications experiences via Carolyn’s Nonprofit Blog, which you are now reading. You can’t imagine how astonished I was – after more than two decades with my head down, working almost 24-7 raising millions for a variety of nonprofit causes – to learn what the rest of the world was experiencing.

To read about the issues on which ONE Campaign focuses, follow the link. And keep in mind that ONE Campaign is not about fundraising, it is about advocacy. Join us! Raise your hand and lift your voice to end extreme poverty, hunger, to ensure education for all, health and well-being, and gender equality. To sign up to volunteer, see the ONE Campaign website.

And be sure to follow me on social media in early June during the ONE Power Summit. I will do my best to post online. I have a new Linktr.ee with my primary links conveniently listed on one page.

Best wishes for your fundraising success!