Development salaries are not great but are getting better. The Association of Fundraising Professionals 2019 salary survey showed the average salary is about $84,000, and that’s a 7.7 percent improvement! The median—“most middle”—salary is $72,500. What are the proven methods to reach financial independence on a relatively modest salary?
Coming from a missionary family, I was shocked at the age of 16 to read a letter from my parents’ mission board that read, “Dear Missionaries, Due to adverse economic conditions, the funds in your retirement account are depleted.” That’s it. Good luck. I vowed that was never going to happen to me, and I spent most of my life working with missionaries, clergy, social workers and teachers who are ridiculously underpaid attain a dignified retirement. [Read more…]
If you want to be your best – in literally anything – optimizing your sleep is your number one performance enhancer. Leaders need sleep! There is not one major organ within the body, or process within the brain, that isn’t enhanced by sleep (or impaired when you don’t get enough). Sleep makes you live longer. It enhances your memory and makes you more creative. It makes you look more attractive. It keeps you slim and lowers food cravings. Sleep improves both cognitive and motor learning. It protects you from cancer and dementia. It wards off colds and the flu. It lowers your risk of heart attacks, stroke, and diabetes. You’ll feel happier, less depressed, and less anxious. In athletes, sleep improves physical performance and reduces the risk of injury.
The world has gone mad. Or, so it seems.
This scenario plays out frequently at many nonprofit organizations: top-performing professionals gets promoted to lead a team but has never been trained to lead or manage. This is often a disaster—results suffer, people head for the door, and the new manager flames out (and may even get fired).