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5 Easy Tips for Summer Time with Grandkids

A morning walk triggered a fond memory in early June, mid-sixties. The water was cold as I jumped into the pool’s shallow end. Slowly walking down the pool steps, my grandmother declared it unusually cold for an early June morning. We were up early for her morning swim to beat

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Six Ideas to Honor the 2024 Graduate

The front page of today’s newspaper has a wonderful story about a graduating high school senior at the top of his class, already facing life’s realities and unexpected changes to his dreams. You remember the dreams when we were young and barely tarnished by life’s bumps and bruises. Many of

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Why the Science of Fundraising Makes for Better Fundraising

Photo:  Astronomical Clock in Prague, Czech Republic Over twenty years of my nonprofit career, I drove or flew home from meetings and conferences, wondering how to replicate great ideas and model programs. I faced the reality of fewer resources and the need to get creative to make it work for

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3 Ways to Make 2024 Giving the Best Year!

Exactly twenty-two months ago, we adopted a two-month-old corgi. On the drive home, we named her Sophie. Later, while completing her registration papers, I decided that Sophie’s name didn’t do her justice. The application provided a long string of squares to fill in, so I settled on Sophie’s Firecracker Celebration

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Create a Legacy Statement for Future Generations

Tiny stacks of 35-millimeter slides covered the dining room table. One by one I passed them through the slide viewer. The story of my parents’ earliest years together unfolded from Okinawa to North Carolina to Colorado and Texas. Pictures are only part of the story.   Several years ago, dad sent me

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Five Tips to be a Smart Donor and Great Fundraiser

My date and I headed to the zoo for a fun afternoon. With curiosity as a guide, I expected to enjoy the animals and maybe answer a few questions about a guy I found interesting and thought I might like to keep around for a while. The zoo had areas

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A Legacy in the Words of One Man

When you hear a suggestion to share your stories with your children and grandchildren, do you hear a voice say, “They’re not interested, don’t have time, and don’t care about my stories?” In conversation with my friend, Joe McIlhaney, M.D., he said what he’d been thinking for a long time

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What Makes a Nonprofit Evergreen

Roses are still blooming in my yard. Variegated pittosporum is glowing next to drab lantana stems that have died down for the year. What is slow to go dormant or even better is evergreen, provides hope of a forthcoming spring.  It’s like the hope a donor has when donating to

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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

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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.

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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