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From The Partners

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Raising Mental Health Awareness

By Kate Hearne, Vice President, Corporate Services. Mental Health Awareness month acknowledges the importance of mental health and reducing the stigma of mental illness. moss+ross is proud to support the following clients whose nonprofit missions are dedicated to mental health support. Camp Corral offers summer camp for children of wounded or fallen military personnel. At camp, children have the opportunity to connect with peers and non-parent role models - social connections that are critical to mental health. Parents of campers report positive impact on their child’s mental health and noticeable improvement in their child’s confidence. moss+ross has provided strategic and fundraising planning, interim staffing, and led executive searches for a new CDO and CEO. Durham Public Schools Foundation is teaming up with Duke Health and Durham Public Schools to launch the WHOLE Schools Movement - a multi-year [...]

2023-05-23T08:06:30-04:00May 23rd, 2023|All Posts, From The Partners, Highlights from the Latest Newsletter|
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Risk and Reward: Approaching the New Year

By Kim Glenn, President. As January brings us into 2023, many of us are thinking about our New Year’s resolutions. We make lists for ourselves, announce our intentions to others, and think purposefully about how we will live into them. It’s the time of year when we are actively encouraged to grow in different ways. What if we could approach every day with the same enthusiasm of turning the page and starting anew? In November 2022, our moss+ross team engaged an outside consultant to help our team think more creatively and see problems as incredible opportunities to try new things. These concepts are part of our core values, and as a team, we focus every day on being open to new ideas, taking risks with identifying solutions, and remaining nimble with the ways we support our clients. [...]

2023-01-24T11:42:28-05:00January 24th, 2023|All Posts, From The Partners, Highlights from the Latest Newsletter|
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Transitions Create Opportunities

By Lizzy Mottern, VP of Talent. Transitions are part of every organization’s life cycle. The good news is they are incredible opportunities to rethink, adjust, and become even stronger. We join clients in times of transition in multiple ways: providing interim contractors through m+r interim solutions, helping boards find their next great leader through our Executive Search services, and providing counsel during succession planning, assessments, and strategic planning work. Specific to staffing needs, moss+ross has provided temporary placements since our founding in 2009, and we formalized this service as our m+r interim solutions division in 2018. Our contractor database has a strong pool of 200+ highly-qualified, local nonprofit professionals who understand the Triangle and take great pride in adding value to the important work of nonprofits. These hand-picked contractors work side-by-side with clients, offering their professional experience [...]

2022-11-22T10:50:40-05:00November 22nd, 2022|All Posts, From The Partners, Highlights from the Latest Newsletter, Staffing, Team Expertise|
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It’s Year-End: Pick up the Phone and Smile!

By Mary Moss, Founding Partner. Are you worried that you have not reached your year-end goals, that you have not talked to the people you thought you should, and that no one is returning your emails? It’s not too late. Pick up the Phone and Smile! In front of you, have the information you need: (1) their names and family names; (2) past giving amounts and patterns of what they usually support; (3) materials that will give you language about the impact of their gift and other details, and (4) how much you are going to ask for. If they have been a past supporter, thank them at least twice during your call. If they have not, make sure they know the impact their gift will have and how they will be recognized, if that’s important to them. Wish [...]

2022-11-22T10:41:07-05:00November 22nd, 2022|All Posts, From The Partners, Highlights from the Latest Newsletter|
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Next Gen Board: Recruiting for a New Day

By Susan Ross, Founding Partner. If your Board nominees look like mirror images of your current board, perhaps it’s time to try a new approach. Most of our nonprofit clients are actively seeking ways to embrace Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging. A stated commitment to DEIB is a good step, but it needs to be followed by actions and outcomes. Nonprofit leaders need board members to be their trusted advisors on strategic questions. If your whole board has the same perspective or the same skillset, you won’t get the best guidance. Board members play important roles as ambassadors and outside eyes, for which you need multiple networks represented. Our clients tell us that they know their boards need new blood, but they don’t know how to find new people. Great candidates are all around us, but it [...]

2022-11-06T09:43:56-05:00October 26th, 2022|All Posts, From The Partners, Highlights from the Latest Newsletter|
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Gettin’ Lucky: Not a wise strategy for securing major gifts

By Mary Moss, Founding Partner. In my experience, there is not much luck in major gifts work. I believe that you make your own luck. I have been in this business for four decades, as staff and consultant, and I have witnessed comments such as: “Wow, they just got lucky with that big gift. I work with that same donor and didn’t get that kind of gift,” or “That gift just came out of the clear blue” or “That donor had no history with that organization. Wonder why they left their estate there?” In most instances of “gettin’ lucky,” there is a solid connection with the donor and strategy behind the gift. I have had a handful of happy occasions where “true luck” happened, and have always wished for more (don't we all?). Nothing replaces a compelling [...]

2022-11-06T09:45:20-05:00September 20th, 2022|All Posts, From The Partners, Fundraising Counsel|
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Fresh Eyes from Trusted Partners

By Kate Hearne, VP Corporate Services Many of you count yourselves among our more than 230 clients, some with 10-12 different contracts (THANK YOU!) At moss+ross, we begin each client relationship with a base of mutual trust and respect, and through our expertise, bring fresh eyes to each and every engagement. How do we bring fresh eyes after consulting on thousands (literally!) of projects over the past 14 years? The answer is simple: each client is an opportunity to make a difference. As I speak to prospective clients and develop proposals for partnering with them, I look for ways our team approach can be fully customized to each new project. It is exciting to match a client’s needs to what we bring, namely: Creative thinking - With each engagement, we challenge ourselves to think beyond traditional approaches, consider [...]

2022-11-06T09:46:43-05:00August 31st, 2022|From The Partners, Highlights from the Latest Newsletter, Team Expertise|
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Local Firm, National Reach

By Susan Ross, Founding Partner. “Shopping local” doesn’t exactly mean the mom-and-pop store on the corner when it comes to choosing strategic counsel. moss+ross takes a community-centric approach to meeting the needs of nonprofits in our region of North Carolina. Clients tell us that the extensive community knowledge and context we bring to our work equip their teams to compete for philanthropic dollars and hire great talent from national as well as local sources. We regularly compete with national fundraising consulting and executive search firms, and we believe moss+ross is a better choice for most nonprofits. Being your local firm is a distinct business advantage – for all of us. Our clients see the impact of our work across sectors and the region. They appreciate having us nearby and nimble, and they are happy not to pay [...]

2022-07-27T12:34:19-04:00July 27th, 2022|All Posts, From The Partners, Highlights from the Latest Newsletter|
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Tips for Retaining Talent

By Lizzy Mottern. Your search was successful, and you have hired an amazing new member of your team -- congratulations! Now you want them to stay. Retaining employees requires thought, planning, and creativity -- and has dramatic payoffs. One is financial: it costs about 33% of a new hire’s salary to replace an employee, and for highly skilled jobs, costs may be up to 150% of the annual salary (source: the Society for Human Resource Management). Finances are just one type of cost: employee turnover can mean lost momentum on projects, your organization’s inability to accept new work, and a toll on morale as other employees step in to cover duties of a vacant position. Once you find a person who makes your organization shine, take two proactive steps that help them choose to stay for a while: [...]

2022-06-29T12:29:49-04:00June 29th, 2022|All Posts, From The Partners, Highlights from the Latest Newsletter, Staffing, Team Expertise|
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Volunteers Bring Magic to the Mission

By Mary Moss, Founding Partner. April is National Volunteer Month, and we are celebrating the strengths and talents of volunteers with our clients and in our social media. Volunteers are not supplemental, or nice to have; they are essential and foundational to a nonprofit’s mission delivery. In 1981, my first fundraising job was to recruit student volunteers at Duke University to fill 18 slots a night throughout the year for the first Dialing for Duke telethons. Duke’s Annual Fund grew exponentially from this personal touch from students to alumni. Four decades later, I can report that every effort I have led as a staff member or volunteer, or guided as a consultant, has found its success through committed volunteers. The real magic happens when you build a strong staff-volunteer partnership with shared goals resulting in a cadre [...]

2022-04-26T16:51:09-04:00April 26th, 2022|All Posts, From The Partners, Highlights from the Latest Newsletter, Team Expertise|
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