You can find my poetry (and other great poems) in:
When Passion’s Not Enough I met with a woman recently who gives a fair bit of money away, some of it to charities I know well. We talked about a …
You can find my poetry (and other great poems) in:
For many years, I ran a small consulting firm called Prospero Partners (after Shakespeare's last magician). I advised on fundraising campaigns and taught writing workshops for charity staff and trustees. Some of the participants were themselves ambitious creative writers. Others had been put off writing long ago, and approached every writing task with real anxiety. I wanted to share some of the confidence and joy that I experience through writing, and also to acknowledge the difficulties all writers face, so I wrote a series of blog posts for my clients. Maybe there's something in one of them for you, too.
When Passion’s Not Enough I met with a woman recently who gives a fair bit of money away, some of it to charities I know well. We talked about a …
First a personal word. I wrote my first post two years ago. I promised myself I’d write 24, then stop. This post is the 23rd. It’s on a subject dear …
This post isn’t about writing. It’s about the world we all live in. The Commission on the Donor Experience has pulled together wise and practical tips and insights from across …
A manager at a leading cultural organisation came to me for help with her writing. In person, she’s a warm, witty expert in her field. But something mysterious happens when …
Like it or not, if you raise money for charity you’re going to be judged. People throw your beautiful letters away. You didn’t raise enough. Your manager’s taken a red …
Do well enough in your job, and sooner or later you’ll have to give a formal presentation or speech. No good deed goes unpunished. A quick scout around the internet …
People move fast in the charity sector. Almost four out of ten fundraisers say they want to change jobs in the next six months – and many will. The average …
December galloped in this year from who knows where. Maybe you, like me, felt less than ready for it. I blame the sensation on political events, especially in the US. …
Language is a loaded gun. If you want to start a word duel (and you can’t bear one more conversation about Brexit or Trump), ask people what they dislike most …
I knew I wanted to write about dialogue this month, so I picked a non fiction book off my shelf, pretty much at random. It’s Scattered Sand, a book about …
Every now and again a client tells me that the last writer they hired got it all wrong. I can’t help feeling sorry for the writer. We’re a tribe, even …
This month my business partner Wilder Gutterson and I were chatting about what happens to people’s writing in charities that are strongly “founder driven” — meaning a visionary founder is …