Thought Leadership

How do you make sure that your strategic plan does more than sit on a shelf and gather dust? How do you know when your organization is ready to write its first strategic plan or update its existing plan? BWF’s Tracey Storey answers the questions you should ask yourself as you consider undertaking a strategic planning process.

Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General, MGH) is constantly optimizing its fundraising team and resources so the organization can continue to do amazing things. The key questions the team asks to inform direction have evolved over time, as have their data-related needs. Today, the team takes a data-first approach in all decision making. Since 2010, their strategic counsel has been provided by BWF, who has served as Mass General’s analytics team and trusted partner.

You’ve come a long way in a year as you prepare to launch your campaign. You’ve developed core messages, struck upon a powerful campaign theme, and created a graphic identity. As great as your achievements are, there is still a long way to go to launch. Now is the time to take your great concepts and turn them into products.

Equally important to an organization’s ability to reach increased fundraising goals is operational readiness. After all, even if an organization has an excellent relationship with a potential donor, a misspelled name in the database, a delay in processing a gift, ill-timed outreach, or multiple touchpoints to the same donor can all lead to embarrassing and potentially damaging incidents.

The communications countdown to a public campaign launch includes numerous critical steps that every organization must take to be successful. There is a tried-and-true approach, and there really aren’t shortcuts or workarounds that don’t come with some compromise or risk. Like the aerospace designers, engineers, and astronauts who are making plans to go into space, the initial steps are essential in ultimately achieving a successful liftoff and splashdown.

The recent meteoric rise of ChatGPT, a chatbot built by OpenAI, has generated a flurry of posts and articles about the future of machine learning technologies. The conversation has raised some important ethical questions.

Our newest white paper, Blending Data Governance and Constituent Engagement to Build an Inclusive Database, approaches this topic in-depth and concentrates on leveraging the union of data governance and constituent engagement to achieve data inclusivity for your organization.

Whether you are building a new grateful patient program or simply evolving one, the best prescription is a healthy dose of trust. It is not always easy to build trust with development professionals so that physicians feel comfortable entrusting fundraisers with the precious relationships they hold so dear when caring for a patient. BWF’s Kara Wagner describes potential obstacles and ways to overcome them.

For communications professionals caught in a crisis, nothing is straightforward and results for the organizations they represent range from embarrassing to catastrophic. Crisis communications plans are, at their core, highly detailed road maps designed to take you from the beginning of the crisis to its conclusion. BWF offers these five core components to help you get ahead of any crisis.