Happy New Year

“And now let us welcome the New Year full of things that have never been.”
Rainer Maria Wilke

As part of our New Year’s resolution here at Partnership in Philanthropy we as a staff plan to engage more with our nonprofit neighbors and do some serious internal planning to be able to hit the ground running once the economy does come back.

To that end our PIP staff will be traveling to Princeton on January 29th to attend the Princeton Community Works Conference. We will be there to present a workshop on best practices in fund development.

In thinking about best practices in fund development what we’ve heard over and over again is that this year will be a difficult one for the nonprofit sector. Foundations, corporations and individuals have not rebounded as well as we had all hoped and therefore won’t be giving away more charitable dollars, rather less. So what is a nonprofit to do? I say plan, plan, plan.

Let’s be introspective this year and take a good look at ourselves. Let’s get out there and network with one another, find out what’s working for our nonprofit neighbors and what’s not. Talk to our funders and let them know what we’re doing this year where we see our strengths and our weaknesses. Engage our volunteers, board, and staff in ongoing discussions on where the organization is and how we can do things better, where we can cut back and what is most essential that absolutely must continue regardless of cost.

So in this New Year, which has yet to unfold, let us imagine and embrace what has never been and let’s all keep moving forward.