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Author: Joe Garecht

Empty gift box with red bow, symbolizing empty promises of online will planners

Some Truth About Online Will Planners

September 10, 2025 No Comments

Online will tools are tactical widgets, not strategies. They create pledges, not relationships, and leave nonprofits bragging about empty numbers instead of real gifts. Legacy campaigns, by contrast, are a full-time effort—cultivating donors with mail, calls, microsites, and stewardship. Tools alone are shortcuts that stall impact; campaigns build pipelines that deliver results. If you want lasting legacy revenue, stop chasing gadgets and start committing to the discipline of a real program.

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Illustration of a crouching nonprofit leader under a lightning-cracking storm cloud, symbolizing organizational fragility and looming Black Swan crises.

Built to Break: How Nonprofit Culture Creates Its Own Crises

July 7, 2025 No Comments

Many nonprofits operate like unsuspecting turkeys, assuming past stability guarantees future safety. Built on feel-good events, crisis-driven appeals and compliance-focused boards, they remain fragile when unpredictable Black Swans—economic shocks, political upheavals, shifting donor sentiment—strike. Reactivity replaces strategy, visibility trumps resilience, and metrics reward vulnerability over strength. True antifragility requires cultivating long-term donor relationships, endowments, dissent-welcome hiring, mission-anchored vision, and durable structures that absorb disruption and emerge stronger, turning inevitable crises into growth catalysts for mission-driven impact ahead.

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Tree split in half right side with leaves looking forward to future.

Why Nonprofits Must Think and Act Like Businesses

December 3, 2024 No Comments

Since the beginning of time, we’ve been wired to avoid risks because that’s how we survive. But while this instinct may protect us from danger, it also holds us back. Success requires bold, unconventional actions that often draw criticism. Businesses understand this well, but nonprofits often struggle to embrace it.

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Joe Garecht

Joe is President of Garecht Fundraising Associates and has over 25 years of experience in fundraising and nonprofit management. He has led a $20M+ organization as Executive Director, served as VP of Development for a major educational nonprofit, and directed development at a large social service agency. Joe has consulted with hundreds of organizations, authored several books, including How to Raise More Money for Any Non-Profit and The Non-Profit Fundraising Formula, and works with clients nationwide and internationally.
Giving Magazine Cover, AFP Las Vegas, Karen Alonso

GIVING Magazine

For those who drive change — not watch it. Join the top 1%.

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