Category: Blog

Career Growth Action Plan

Leadership Development Career Growth Action Plan A 6–12 Month Roadmap Employee Manager How We Will Use This Worksheet This worksheet is designed to guide our one-on-one conversations regarding your career growth over the next 6–12 months. We will work through the sections together, with you, as the employee, leading the reflection, and me, the manager, serving as a thought partner and coach. We agree to: Engage in a conversation that is focused and distraction-free. Dialogue with candor. This is a planning and learning tool, not an evaluation. Capture ideas, thoughts, and answers in real time. Imperfect notes are better than no notes. Revisit this plan often and at the agreed check-in points to learn together and adjust as needed. Print a copy to fill out together, or work through it on screen. Print This Plan 1Reflection 2Goal Setting 3Development Plan 4Check-ins 1 Reflection Before setting goals, take time to look inward. These three subsections build on each other, moving from who you are today, to where you want to go, to the specific skills that will get you there. Do not feel you need to rush through this section in one conversation or meeting; take your time to reflect on […]

The Relationship Your Donor Is Waiting For

Field Guide Series Reframing the Fundraising Cycle: The Collaborative Donor Relationships Framework The traditional fundraising cycle (identification, qualification, cultivation, solicitation, stewardship) is a useful infrastructure. It gives CRMs their architecture, keeps teams aligned on goals, and provides a shared language for measuring progress. But it is often used to track institutional activity, not donor experience. When it becomes the primary lens for managing relationships, something slips: conversations start to orbit the ask, donor values stay surface-level, and the relationship begins to feel like a transaction to both parties. Introducing the Collaborative Donor Relationships Framework The Collaborative Donor Relationships framework is the other side of that coin. Where the fundraising cycle tracks where the institution is, this framework tracks where the donor is through five phases: Awareness, Interest, Connection, Partnership, and Investment. Each phase is defined by a central question and two outcomes: what the donor needs to feel, and what the institution learns as a result. Together, the two models do what neither can do alone. What Makes This Approach Different Three things distinguish this approach: it anchors engagement in donor values rather than giving history or capacity; it asks gift officers to understand their own leadership style and adapt […]

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