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In Episode 7 of the Community Rec Magazine Podcast, Mariella Canady-Towns, the chief philanthropy officer (CPO) at the YMCA of Central New York, discussed all things philanthropy — from her start in the industry, fundraising experiences and how the Y has reached 63% of its annual giving goal so far. During the conversation, Canady-Towns also shared her advice for future CPOs including how to create a philanthropy playbook for success.
Show Notes
Mariella Canady-Towns on creating a philanthropy playbook:
“The advice I would give a future CPO starting their journey is to first develop a plan within your first three months — a philanthropy playbook. I recommend this advice to current philanthropy offices as well. In your playbook you want to include objectives, observations of your systems and processes, and tactics to build connections and rapport with your board members and staff. And when I say staff, I mean all staff, not just senior leadership. You also want to include community stakeholders, analyze your donor list, major gifts, principal gifts and endowment. Understand the donor history and the community involvement — that data is key in the discovery phase of your entire observation. Also, establish your strategic philanthropy plan based on that discovery of your organization and collaborate with other departments to build philanthropy in everyone’s role, because it’s how you’re going to build that culture. Plus, there will be a synergy between your team and the other departments to support your philanthropy plan. Lastly, receiving buy in from other leaders and your board is essential to the success in raising money and your philanthropic efforts, as well as building relationships. When you get to know your community stakeholders, including your foundations, corporations, local and state legislators, that will help you build your philanthropy playbook because then you’ll be able to be strategic. Overall, be prepared to pivot and create innovative structures as the foundation to support your playbook and you’ll be successful.”
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