I received an email last night from a friend who said that her program budget had just been cut 75%.  She is the only staff person remaining.  Sadly, her story is not unique.  Communication and fundraising is a critical competency these days.  Here are some tips I picked up at last year's Independent Sector conference. The following six elements were positioned as the building blocks of a successful communications campaign:

1. Selflessness - communicate mission first, organization second

2. Collaboration - portray organization as an "honest broker to improve the world"

3. Advocacy - share information, remain non-partisan

4. Efficiency - show how organization spends fewer resources for greater impact

5. Effectiveness - good intentions are not good enough...measure progress

6. Accountability - be proactively honest and transparent with more than just finances