/
RSS Feed
Jenny Soderholm has invested her entire career in healthcare philanthropy. As Chief Development Officer at Children’s Minnesota and President of Children’s Minnesota Foundation, Jenny is focused on fostering a broad and deep culture of philanthropy that advances her organization’s ability to serve more children and families across Minnesota.
As we talked recently, Jenny shared some insights that are PURE GOLD for those of us who wake every day eager to build relationship with donors and investors to help advance important causes in our world. Here are some key takeaways from our conversation:
- True philanthropic leadership requires that your organization’s CEO invests fully in the concept of philanthropy as central to your organization’s success. The result of this is actual financial investment in the philanthropy team. That means hiring, training, developing, and building into the people doing the work day-to-day.
- High-performing teams build trust with partners in programs, administration, and across the organization by focusing on clarity of purpose, organizational vision and mission.
- Leaders can foster greater collaboration and shared vision for philanthropy by sharing positive donor feedback with peers across an organization.
- In order for organizations to thrive, it requires a thoughtful, strategic view toward investing in people, systems, processes, and growth opportunities over time.
- With the continued shrinking of the middle class, we fundraisers need to think differently about talking with donors about giving from their assets instead of their cash reserves — because cash is limited, but many supporters have significant assets that can still be put to work to impact our world.
- Successful organizations help donors understand how their investments can make a difference in the world, and honor them for the impact they make.
This conversation is packed with value and encouragement for the fundraiser and the profession of philanthropy. Take a listen today!