Categories
Become Santa

How to Become Santa for Someone this Year

In the late sixties, my family moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming. My brother and I arrived at our new school in the middle of an outbreak of strep throat, also known as streptococcus. The outbreak was severe. They began weekly throat cultures on every student and sending anyone home who tested

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nonprofit helper

Helpers Can Make Year-End Giving More Meaningful

Helpers come in all sizes and forms. It has been such an odd year. I can’t imagine what things might be like at the North Pole. What would Santa Claus do without his helpers, elves in green suits with pointy toes, to prepare for the all-important worldwide delivery of packages

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nonprofit survival

How to Join the Donation Crowd and Avoid Fear of the Unknown

Are you feeling down about the future? Join the crowd. Let’s create our own crowd – let’s hang together and give together so that others, including our families and friends, will find help when it is needed. I’m sure you’ll fit right in. Giving is different this year, more critical

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Online Gifts

Online Gifts: How to Better Reach Your Giving Goals

Have you made a gift online this year? Chances are the answer is yes. A growing number of donors respond to a Facebook post or a Tweet to give but ask few questions about the group or nonprofit making the ask. A few clicks and it’s done. Gift made. Endorphins

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fail forward

Daring to Risk Failure Leads to Greater Success

By Margie Boyd, Executive Vice President, Your Philanthropy After reading Dawn’s blog last week, I accepted the challenge and read Suzanne Smith’s article, “The Social Sector’s F-Word — Failure”.  As a former Founder/Executive Director of a local nonprofit, many of Smith’s points brought back memories and lessons learned. It reminded

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fear of failure

Overcoming Fear of Failure Can Change the World

A nonprofit sector strategist I follow writes a blog called Socialtrend Spotter. Suzanne Smith, author, founder and CEO of Social Impact Architects, often provides excellent insight and suggestions for her readers. She speaks directly into the most immediate struggles nonprofit organizations face daily. In Suzanne’s recent blog, she uses the

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Legacy

How Life Stories Become the Legacy You Leave

The everyday life you live is the legacy you leave. Yes, the stories of our lives become our legacy. We have no choice in the matter. Others look at the trail we walked, the life journey we are on and see a legacy.  The very nature of a legacy is

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crowdfunding

How Your Small Donation Will Make You the Best Donor

Five years ago, a funny-sounding start-up company called Silidog caught my attention. Researching crowdfunding, I stumbled across Mickey Lickstein’s project on Kickstarter, a web-based platform used by creatives to find financial backers willing to invest in tiny chunks to get an idea started. Lickstein was an MBA student with a

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The Gift of Giving

The Gift of Giving is a journey into a donor’s personal legacy—the one they’ve been living every single day. It started the day they were born, a story only they can live and share. Their story is their legacy.

The Gift of Giving is not just a book, it is a valuable resource, guide, and tool for givers of all ages at all stages to tell their legacy story. Throughout this book they will find short exercises to help them understand and convey their legacy, in essence, write their legacy.

While the story they’ve already lived will not change, donors can do something about tomorrow by becoming a more intentional giver today!

Available in Kindle, digital download or paper edition.

Your Legacy, Your Story

Some of us are great story tellers, and then some of us are better on paper. But for most of us, our stories play out on a never-ending tape stuck in our heads. Sometimes we feel them in our heart or gut. Author Don Miguel Ruiz says it this way, “You create an entire picture or movie in your mind, and in that picture you are the director, you are the producer, you’re the main actor or actress. Everyone else is a secondary actor or actress. It’s your movie. Every movie has a script. That script is your life story."
FROM
THE GIFT OF GIVING

One Story Across Generations

Golda, matriarch of a generous family, modeled a legacy story for her granddaughter, Sharon, and her community. Sharon learned about giving, watching and talking to her grandmother. When the young and curious Sharon asked Golda why wheelchairs were hanging from the basement rafters, she learned that her grandmother believed it was a community’s responsibility to care for those in need. As a result, Golda had prepared with wheelchairs, walkers, and dressing rolls ready for the future.
FROM
THE GIFT OF GIVING

Take a peek inside.

See what’s inside The Gift of Giving on book2look.

Kindle Edition

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Gift of Giving Book

Giving Fingerprints

Sign up to receive Dawn’s FREE e-book, Giving Fingerprints, designed to help you be the unique giver you were meant to be.

FREE E-BOOK

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FREE e-book, Giving Fingerprints.

SPEAKER REQUEST

Request A Speaker

Dawn Franks is available to speak on a wide variety of topics to philanthropic organizations, professional associations and community groups. Topics include:

  • Giving Fingerprints

  • How Your Philanthropy Impacts the Next Generation

  • What Story Does Your Foundation Tell?

  • Family Foundations: Starting from Scratch