New President for Sydney PEN

As of a few hours ago I am the newly elected President of Sydney PEN. I am honoured to hold this position and hope I can do justice to my colleagues on the incoming Management Committee (who will be listed on the organisation’s website in the next day or two),...

A devilish lack of detail

Wearing my grant-seeker’s cap, I am researching potential funders for a large-scale nonprofit initiative on behalf of a client. During my efforts today I was struck by how many well-intentioned grant-makers offer vague descriptions of the sorts of organisations...

Death and taxes

Apparently planned donors don’t die: “their wills mature”. I wrote down this gem during one of my classes at NYU’s summer intensive in philanthropy and fundraising. I have to say, it’s proving a challenge to get into midtown every morning...

Philanthropy on a US-scale

I’ve been busy with professional development in the last week or so, attending a few seminars at the Foundation Centre here in New York. They run many courses each month on proposal writing, budgeting, research and so on. I’m doing all these courses in...