Thank you! Yes, you!

Do you ever think about how your nonprofit depends on partnerships? Partnerships not just with community partners, but with your donors?

This post is dedicated to thanking all of my partners this year. When you see these people’s names below, I hope you will look them up, check them out, follow them on Twitter and buy from them. They are incredible partners and have high caliber products and services.

2014 was a year of partnership. Correction. 2014 was a year of MEGA-Partnership. 

I created and sustained over 30 partnerships with different organizations, colleagues, and nonprofits. I want to step back and appreciate each of my partners for what they brought to the table, and how they rock so hard.

It has been a wild ride this year! So many people to thank!

January: Starting out the year I did my first webinar for Association of Fundraising Professionals! I want to thank Chris Griffin for coordinating that so well.

I also participated in Vanessa Chase‘s first virtual storytelling conference (For The Storytelling Nonprofit), and I am so grateful to her for including me in that conference. It was a complete success, and I’m looking forward to participating again next year! Thank you Vanessa!

I also launched a fabulous product by Claire Axelrad of Clairification.com, called Winning Major Gifts, which has helped tons of nonprofits start to get more major gifts! Let me tell you, if you want a seriously good writer and professionalism to the nth degree, get Claire in your corner!

February: In February Simone Joyaux did a wonderful webinar for my group all about how to work with your board members more effectively.

Frank Barry at Blackbaud asked me to do a webinar on donor retention calendars for Blackbaud and I was happy to do it! Thank you for including me Frank! You were so easy to work with!

March: Vanessa Chase at The Storytelling Nonprofit did a lovely webinar on online storytelling for my group. Thank you so much for a thoughtful and engaging webinar Vanessa!

I also collaborated with Claire Axelrad again to make a nonprofit blogging course called Charity Blogging Gold. Thank you for your superior writing skills Claire!

I am also so grateful that Deena Pierott asked me to be a presenter at her Urban Summit! That was such a joy. Thank you so much Deena!

April: Steve Burke asked me to present at the Washington SBDC of South Seattle on social media for small businesses, and I loved it!

Throughout the year, Joe Ridgway and Sam Frank at 4Good have been letting me do webinars for 4Good, quarterly, and I’m very grateful to them. It has been so fun!

May: Magda Hageman at Meals on Wheels asked me to do some webinars on annual reports and I was happy to teach these national webinars for their members.

Deanna Tharpe at DSAIA asked me to teach some webinars on board effectiveness, and fundraising on a shoestring, and I was so happy to continue to partner with them!

Connie Hubbs asked me to present a webinar for her group on advanced annual reports, and I was so grateful to work with her. It was a pleasure.

June: Bruce Burtch, the father of Cause Marketing and author of Win-Win for the Greater Good did two lovely webinars on how to start getting corporate partnerships, and what corporations stand to gain from partnering with you.

Margaret Battistelli and Joe Boland at NAPCO and Fundraising Success Magazine invited me to present a webinar in an experimental series on using donor data. That was SUPER FUN! Thank you both!

Melinda Snow Olson of Left Brained Marketing did two incredible webinars on how automated emails can help your new subscribers become donors, and help first time donors give you that critical second gift.

In June I also presented for MercyCorps to their small business program.

July: Jim Murphy at Progressive Business Publications worked with me to create a good presentation on e-newsletters for your nonprofit!

Jay Love and Steven Shattuck at Bloomerang asked me to do a webinar on how to get people to open your enewsletters, we had over 500 attendees, and they said it was the most fun webinar they had ever done! AW…. you guys are the best!

Courtney Cherico at GuideStar allowed me to interview her! And Lindsay Nichols helped me post on their GuideStar TRUST blog, and I’m so psyched at the chance to present for them again this coming year!

August: Gayle Gifford of Cause and Effect did a lovely webinar on how to manage your board more effectively

Joe Garecht of The Fundraising Authority asked me to do a webinar for him, and he returned the favor by doing a major gifts webinar for me!

Shari Tishman at VolunteerMatch allowed me to present for them again with Desiree Adaway, and I was so happy to talk about how to help your volunteers fundraise for you more effectively! I also got to interview Shari about VolunteerMatch’s new direction, which was so fun!

Mississippi Center for Nonprofits and I started doing a series of webinars for their association spanning from August to October!

September: Carroll Bernard of WayPoint America did a fantastic webinar series on how to find and get government contracts for your nonprofit.

Gail Perry of Fired Up Fundraising asked me to speak for her virtual speaker series on end of year appeals! I was so happy and grateful to be a part of this star-studded series.

October: Joe Waters of Selfish Giving, Amy Eisenstein of TriPoint Fundraising, Gail Perry of Fired Up Fundraising, Claire Axelrad, Vanessa Chase, and Joe Garecht all helped make the Halloween Goodies Giveaway a total success!

October-November: I started to partner with the Idaho Nonprofit Center to do webinars for their members! It has been a blast!

Rob Bart asked me to speak at the brown bag lunch series at FORGE, a co-working space in downtown Portland. That was fun! If you’re in Portland, go and check them out!

Oct-Nov-Dec: John Lopez of the Oregon Small Business Development Center Network TIP Program asked me to come back and contract again with the OSBDCN network to do a series of seven online trainings for SBDCs around the state of Oregon. I was delighted to do so!

November: Robert Weiner of RL Weiner Consulting presented two excellent webinars on how to choose a donor database, and what to track in your donor database.

Karen O’Keefe of Advanced Negotiation Strategies presented a much needed webinar on how to negotiate your nonprofit salary.

December: Margaret Battistelli and Joe Boland at NAPCO and Fundraising Success Magazine invited me to present for the second year at their Virtual fundraising conference. I am so pumped to do this for them!

This year I had the total joy of working with Shanon Doolittle of ShanonDoolittle.com and she encouraged me to take my coaching game to the next level! I am so grateful for her friendship and serious smarts!

This year I also had the pleasure of working with Lucy’s Love Bus for much of the year, and I’m so grateful to Beecher and Jackie at that organization!

I saw sponsorship from the other side of the table, and sponsored the CNRG Digest for 6 months and worked with them to promote webinars to nonprofits in the greater Portland area.

YESPDX, the Young Entrepreneur Society of Portland asked me to lead their women’s group and I loved it. Looking forward to doing more with them in 2015.

And I could never have done it all without the help of some wonderful local friends to get me through…

My friend Paul Maziar, who keeps me motivated to write and share poetry, allowed me to read at his reading series, called The Switch.

My friend Ealasaid, who loves to work at coffeeshops with me, and who makes me such beautiful books! You should buy one!

My friend Yukon, who loves to walk, and talk, and cook and craft and play games with me.

My friend Irene, who loves to invite me to the coast and to fun networking events!

My friend Sarah, who always surprises and encourages me to dream big.

My friend Sabrina, who always reminds me about self-care and how important it is.

My friend Steve Havelka, who helps me with website hosting, with technical issues, who loves to take long bikerides and walks with me, and who brings a serious business attitude to help me think about things differently.

Not to mention my new friends like Mindy Weimer, Gentoku McCrea and Ami Dar!

And of course, my sweet family, Mom, Dad, Joy, Nan, Paul, my cousins, my brothers and my lovely grandparents.

I am such a lucky person, because I get to know you. All of you. Thank you so much for everything you do for me. I hope you can feel my gratitude through the screen, though we are far away from each other! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. I appreciate you so much.