For the past 10 years, the Blackbaud Institute Index has tracked year-over-year trends in philanthropy and annual giving statistics—with the goal of empowering organizations to know their sector and raise more, faster. Over this time, the Index has grown to track over $40 billion from over 8,400 organizations in the United States!
To celebrate we’ve invited some of our most trusted advisors, industry experts, and friendly faces to lead virtual fireside chats, podcast episodes, and more! Today’s episode features a conversation between brand strategist Ben Smithee and the Blackbaud Institute’s Ashley Thompson. At The Smithee Group, Ben Smithee has been helping leaders and businesses dream bigger and achieve more. In this excerpt from their conversation, Ben shares his expert advice on how a powerful brand allows for organizations to drive higher value and cataclysmic demand. Unfortunately, as Ben points out, powerful branding like this is one of the biggest areas where organizations fall behind today. He and Ashley connect on current trends in philanthropy and the for-profit sector to outline how you can get ahead of the curve by creating a relevant, legacy-focused brand in today’s digital ecosystem.
Topics Covered in this episode:
Resources:
Blackbaud Institute Index’s 10th Anniversary Celebration
More from sgENGAGE and the Blackbaud Institute
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Quotes:
“A brand is a promise that an organization has the opportunity to deliver upon.” – Ben Smithee
“How do we become relevant to the future of the organization and create a legacy? By focusing on the future stakeholders of the organization. We can't fall in love with how we've always done things.” – Ben Smithee
For the past 10 years, the Blackbaud Institute Index has tracked year-over-year trends in philanthropy and annual giving statistics—with the goal of empowering organizations to know their sector and raise more, faster. Over this time, the Index has grown to track over $40 billion from over 8,400 organizations in the United States!
To celebrate we’ve invited some of our most trusted advisors, industry experts, and friendly faces to lead virtual fireside chats, podcast episodes, and more! We couldn’t have kicked off the series with a better guest than Chuck Longfield, renowned data scientist, philanthropy strategist, and the creator of the Blackbaud Institute Index! Now retired, Chuck allowed us to steal him from the golf course for a little while to sit down for a conversation with Steve MacLaughlin—lucky us!
In this excerpt for the sgENGAGE podcast, Chuck shares the inspiration behind the Blackbaud Institute Index and the value of such a significant and diverse data set when determining current trends and best practices in the sector. After the podcast, check out the full webinar, available on demand, where the two discuss the lessons Chuck has learned over his 40 year career, and put their heads together about how these lessons can help organizations navigate the road ahead.
Topics Covered in this episode:
Resources:
Blackbaud Institute Index’s 10th Anniversary Celebration
More from sgENGAGE and the Blackbaud Institute
To receive quarterly updates on the Index straight to your inbox, subscribe to The Source newsletter.
Quotes:
“Because there really wasn’t any gold standard, different organizations can pick and choose their metrics can pick and choose the definitions of their metrics. And it causes organizations I think, too often, to come to the wrong conclusion about maybe what their next step should be. And so, for many of the years that I've been working in this area, I wanted to try to standardize these metrics.” – Chuck Longfield