Last Thursday, I attended the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits Annual Conference. In addition to staffing our booth in the exhibit hall, I also took some time to attend a breakout session. The session was presented by Cary Walksi of MAP for Nonprofits and Kevin Watson of Hamline University, titled “Email EQ – Tips to Tap the Emotional Brain.”

The main focus of the presentation was answering the question “Why do donors give to some causes and not to others?” It broke down the differences between a person’s emotional brain and analytical brain, and concluded that when a person’s emotional brain is tapped, they tend to be more generous when asked to donate to a cause.

Here are 3 tips that Cary and Kevin shared to tap the emotional brain: [More]

In preparation for my upcoming breakout session at the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits Annual Conference, I’ve put a lot of thought into benchmarking. A lot of my work on the session has been focused on obtaining a deeper understanding of benchmarks for MN, and how MN based organizations can use that knowledge to improve their communications. An integral part of that understanding depends on organizations benchmarking themselves. Here are some tips on how to benchmark your own organization. [More]

The annual Minnesota Council of Nonprofits conference, one of the biggest and best nonprofit conferences in the world, begins Thursday (10/6/11). I look forward to this event every year, as a chance to connect with Minnesota's thriving nonprofit community, catch up with people representing our 57 Minnesota clients, and learn and share best practices and new ideas.

Here's a sneak preview of two sessions we are leading. [More]