Author: Nancy Patterson

I have spent the past 24 years working in the nonprofit sector serving community-based causes–educational institutions, arts and cultural organizations, healthcare providers and nonprofit start-ups. I began serving as Associate Vice President of Leadership & Fund Development at Chattanooga State Community College in August of 2013 and was promoted to Vice President of College Advancement and Public Relations in August 2015. I also own a nonprofit consulting business which I started in 2005 and co-founded a legal tech company with my husband in 2011.

The Ultimate Vision for the Guidestar Exchange

Last month a LinkedIn email from the group “GuideStar — The Nonprofit Conversation” caught my attention.  Written by David Mundy, eCommerce Manager at GuideStar, he wrote an article on the vision behind the GuideStar Exchange. Here is an excerpt: (more…)

Most “shared” posts on Nonprofitunity

I thought it’d be interesting to list the top five blog posts from Nonprofitunity that received the most shares from my readers: (more…)

When you’re working to become awesome

Screen Shot 2014-02-13 at 9.21.18 PMI dedicate today’s post to those who are reaching — striving to be better than they are today; working hard; full of grit and passion. No matter what your age, you will enjoy this and probably want to share it with someone else in a similar place: (more…)

Anniversary Videos That Inform and Engage

Slide03I’ve written about videos in the past and how they can turn viewers into advocates for and contributors to your organizations. We now have compelling evidence that shows for a third of all donors between the ages of 18 and 48, video is important to the causes they support. No surprise that the majority of Millennials (56%) view online videos about charities they support, and nearly half (46%) of Gen Xers (including me) do the same. Although a similar comparison is not available for baby boomers, who represent 43% of the total giving (more…)

What a year 2013 was

Slide19As we look forward to what 2014 has in store for each of us, it is good to reflect on what a year it was. Professionally, I set my sights on putting some roots down in 2013, and in August, I returned to the world of higher education when I accepted the position of Associate Vice President of Leadership and Fund Development for Chattanooga State Community College. I was also satisfied to complete my Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) credential this past year. I hope 2013 brought you (more…)

SignNow App for Nonprofit Professionals

Screen Shot 2013-11-26 at 8.44.07 PMIn my work as a chief development officer for a community college, my mobile devices are among the most important tools in my work shed. Equally as important are the apps that deliver digital results.

Just this week I used my iPad mini to work on a document that needed signed, dated and returned via email. With SignNow, the  (more…)

Online learning made easy for nonprofit professionals

Screen Shot 2013-10-12 at 12.29.40 PMIf you have not yet discovered the online learning library at nonprofitwebinars.com, you have been missing out friends! Nonprofit Webinars is a wonderful online community providing nonprofit professional development at no cost to viewers. More than 10,000 nonprofit professionals (more…)

Content Marketing is King

Slide43The Twitter feed is full of all sorts of useful content. As far as social media platforms go, Twitter is probably my current personal favorite, delivering nuggets of gold in 140 characters or less. A Sept. 7, 2013 Tweet by @cdilly — social media guru Colleen Dilenschneider — included a powerful one-liner and a link to a terrific infographic about the power of content marketing: “Per dollar spent, content marketing generates approximately 3 times as many leads as traditional marketing http://ow.ly/oF9IH” (more…)

The right software to grow causes you care about

Tony Martignetti

Tony Martignetti

The Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio podcast recently featured CEO of Software Advice Don Fornes who spoke about his five best tips for identifying the right software, such as to avoid the allure of “bells and whistles” of a system’s technology and focus on what you actually need. (more…)