Whether you are planning your first campaign, your 50th or any place in between, knowing the right questions to ask of your data is critical to your fundraising campaign planning and achievement. What campaign goal is feasible? How do we measure our organization’s capacity (both internal and external)? How do you answer those questions to get you moving on the path to success? Here are just a few questions that are often asked and tools that can help get you to the answers you need.

The recent April 2013 CASE Currents article, “Culture of Philanthropy, The Common Thread,” by Gale Bennett is an insightful and valuable piece that is sure to stimulate important discussions at our schools, colleges and universities. It brought to mind similar thoughts crafted by Chuck Sizemore, a former colleague at Marts & Lundy about 10-12 years ago.

A number of years ago, when I was flying from Providence, Rhode Island, to Missoula, Montana, I read an article in the airline magazine about hiring decisions and the importance of knowing whether you are looking for a “pirate captain” or a “bursar.” The crux of the article was to suggest that these two important positions in maritime management served separate functions, and the person who could take risks like a pirate captain was not the same person who would see to accurate accountancy like a bursar.

On January 17, the long awaited “Modifications to the HIPAA Privacy, Security, Enforcement and Breach Notifications Rules” were published in the Federal Register.  At first blush, it appears that these changes may streamline some of the rather awkward protocols with which healthcare development officers have been dealing for years.