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“The most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or hostile universe.” ― Albert Einstein Friends, Get ready for this jelly–Thursday’s webinar is going to provide some serious value for my overworked, stressed-out nonprofit homies.   This Thursday, my pal Dr. Eugene Choi is going to drop some serious knowledge […]

Real talk: I’m tired, y’all. I’m tired of seeing another headline of mass shootings. I’m tired of reading about yet another hate-related crime committed against people for simply existing in this world as a Black/Asian/Latinx/immigrant/trans/LGBTQ+/unhoused/concert-going/2nd grade attending/churchgoing/mosque-going/just going to work/sleeping at home/jogging down the street/female/breathing person. So, basically, anyone who is currently alive. I’m tired

“…Dogs have such a short lifespan because it’s part of their loving service to us. They are here, among other reasons, to teach us how to die—because they are so good at it, and we are so bad at it…Dogs see all the fear and anxiety that we humans carry around about the subject of

I’ve got some sobering news for you.   One day–hopefully very far from today–you and I and everybody we know will not exist on this planet anymore.   In the midst of a sunny spring that heralds rebirth and renewal, I’ve been contemplating death, loss and change.  One of my dear friends lost a loved one recently. 

What’s the difference? When you’re playing not to lose, you’re scared to make mistakes.   You play safe.   You play tense and you hold back.   You react and you hesitate. When you’re playing to win, you accept that mistakes are part of the process. You’re willing to take on challenges, risk and the judgment of others.

When I was a little baby ED, I fantasized that life would be better once we were a million-dollar organization.   Think of all the staff I could hire, think of all the time I would get back by delegating, I would dream. Ha. Mo money, mo problems. It’s not that life was better at $1m

Why is a Ferrari more expensive than a Honda? Why is the CEO paid more than a janitor? Why does Charity:Water raise so much more money than the local grassroots nonprofit? It’s not because the more expensive thing is “better” or that the big nonprofit does “better” work or that the CEO works harder than

They say it makes an ass out of U and Me.   But does it? What happens if we choose to assume good things? What if we assumed that all of the money we needed to fund our work existed and we just needed to find it? What if we assumed that every person we met

Growing is uncomfortable. Doing stuff you’ve never done before is uncomfortable. Risking failure is uncomfortable. But, here’s the thing: you can’t do the same things you’ve always done and expect different results. Success lies on the other side of uncomfortable.  Sending that email, taking that donor meeting, risking not knowing what to say: that’s how

When I wrote my book Get That Money, Honey! The No-Bullsh*t Guide to Raising Money for Your Nonprofit, I had a very clear idea of who my reader was. 26-year-old clueless Rhea. In general, this is an industry that eats its young.  We put people into big jobs that they are generally undertrained, under-experienced and/or

Hey, hi, hello. Soooo, you might have heard about this, but I wrote a book Get That Money, Honey! The No-Bullsh*t Guide to Raising Money for Your Nonprofit. This little book baby is the distillation of 20+ years of fundraising, plus the best guidance and advice from my personal mentors and podcast guests. It’s available

I’ve gotten a ton of feedback about my last post about Anna Delvey so….remix! Ok, we can all agree that Anna Delvey is definitely a fraudster and most likely a sociopath.  Yes, we all agree that she’s not a good or an ethical person.  But, there are some lessons here for fundraisers.  To be clear,

I recently took a flight from New York to San Francisco.  On the way, I got hooked into Netflix’s new Inventing Anna. If you don’t know the Anna Delvey story, I do hope that rock you’re living under is comfy.  To recap, Anna is a fake socialite who conned New York’s elite out of tons

This weekend, I was on a phone call with members of our Asian Boss Ladies network. I heard anger.  Fear.  Outrage. In the aftermath of the murders of Michelle Go and Christina Lee, Asian American women are not doing OK. We are afraid to ride the subways.  We are afraid to walk down the street.

“Talk to someone about themselves and they’ll listen for hours.” -Dale Carnegie We are all the heroes of our own personal movies.  Whether it’s a comedy, tragedy, drama or horror is all up to you.   My personal movie is like if Amelie had a baby with Sixteen Candles with a twist of The Joy Luck

Asian-Americans have long been held up by whites as the “model minority” in opposition to African-Americans. We were the “good” minority who work hard, stayed quiet and knew their place. We would never get a seat at the table, but we were at least allowed to stay in the room to serve the meal while

Freeeeee, free faaaaaaaaallling! Congratulations!  You just received an offer to be an Executive Director! OMG.  Now what? Chances are, even if you have been in a senior role in a nonprofit, you will be new to the challenges of being the boss.  More likely, you are either a founder or relatively new in your career

Sound familiar to you? Show me a nonprofit board that is raising “enough” and I’ll show you an Executive Director who blissfully sleeps eight hours a night.But, seriously, folks…how do you get board members to understand and embrace their fiduciary responsibilities to the organization? Here are 7 tips to change the culture of philanthropy on

“To be Jedi is to face the truth, and choose. Give off light, or darkness, Padawan. Be a candle or the night.” Yoda   I’m continuously blown away by the energy, optimism and social conscience of Millennials and Generation Z.  When I see people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or the young people of Parkland, I think

All of us got into the business of nonprofits because of our humanity.  We loved animals or the environment or supporting kids to college or protecting the redwood trees.  Love and empathy are the most human of emotional experiences and it’s what drives the nonprofit sector.  We were called by the promise of changing the