In his nearly 25 years in the industry, Josh Birkholz has been driven to help turn tomorrow’s dreams into today’s realities. Philanthropy inspires him because “giving is the most tangible, collective, and inspiring demonstration of this essential human quality. To enable philanthropy is among the noblest of pursuits.”
Josh, who literally wrote the book on fundraising analytics, has been recognized for his contributions to the field, having received Apra’s Visionary Award, been ranked 4th among the “Top 40 Most Effective Fundraising Consultants” by Business of Giving, and earned CASE’s Crystal Apple Award for Teaching Excellence.
At BWF, he oversees organizational fundraising leadership and innovation, strategic planning and change engineering, enterprise-wide data-driven strategies, campaign management and counsel, and high net worth program development. He has served clients by designing multi-billion-dollar campaigns, conducting advancement-wide strategic planning, building major and principal gift programs, conducting high-touch donor sentiment analysis, and helping to integrate data science and technology to achieve measurable growth.
“How soon ‘not now’ becomes ‘never.’” Martin Luther
In his free time, Josh enjoys composing music, performing on the upright bass, collecting vintage action figures and comics, and fishing.
BWF conducted a research project across the philanthropic landscape to gain contemporary views of campaigns. Through a combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis, we landed on some overarching themes worthy of consideration.
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No longer is it enough to be the best fundraiser in the room. Leaders of the modern fundraising enterprise have the responsibility and privilege to be so much more. Through a commitment to character development, continual learning, confirming the fundamentals, innovation, and modeling excellence, the leader of a development program can bring out the best from their team and build a successful program of significance. This preview of BeneFactors showcases the depth this book offers.
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BWF is excited to announce the launch of a new book for the philanthropic sector by BWF’s own Josh Birkholz and Amy Lampi. Scheduled to launch this October, BeneFactors: Why Some Fundraising Professionals Always Succeed is being published by Wiley.
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