Napa Review archives
Professional Volunteer Engagement: A Training Program
January 2009 - Download PDF
The Napa Group’s Professional Volunteer Engagement program integrates our long experience in strategic planning, organizational and workforce dynamics and professional development of individuals and teams. Our innovative program combines best practices in volunteer recruitment and retention with recognized training and development methodologies to ensure that university alumni and advancement offices incorporate volunteers efficiently and sustainably into the workforce.
Surviving Turbulent Economic Times
October 2008 - Download PDF
The world headlines were as stunning as the near-catastrophe they described – “avoiding financial tsunami” (Paris), “the end of capitalism?” (London), “swallow(ing) Wall Street’s toxic debts” (New York). Two and a half weeks later, when the House of Representatives initially turned down what The Washington Post called “The Mother of All Interventions” on Wall Street, a jaw-dropping $1.2 trillion vanished from the United States stock market in just one plummeting trading day. Also download the accompanying Fact Sheet (.pdf).
ROI Budgeting – Agility in Higher Education
During Changing Times June 2008 - Download PDF
The financial challenges facing colleges and universities in the next 10 years will be increasingly more complex. Demographics are shifting in certain regions, enrollment growth is changing in traditional markets and economic uncertainties are fueled by the real estate “bust” and lower interest rates. As the reliable and predictable revenue and investment streams of the past 15 years decline, the pressures on institutional leadership will increase.
Leveraging the Power of Philanthropy
By RJ Valentino, President, The Napa Group
August 2006 - Download PDF
What would Al Gore do with $60 billion?
Thinking about Al Gore’s campaign against global warming brought me to Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and the people who are making a difference through their extraordinary wealth. Buffet’s $31 billion gift to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation brings the foundation’s total to $60 billion. If the Gates Foundation were a country, notes the Chronicle of Philanthropy, its assets would equal the 55th largest economy in the world and a larger gross domestic product than oil-rich Kuwait.
Fundraising's Lessons for Solution Sales
By RJ Valentino, President, The Napa Group
May 2005 - Download PDF
Recently, while preparing for an assignment with a sales and marketing division in a publicly traded company, I was struck by the notion that the solution sales objectives for this company were not much different than the donor relationship objectives in philanthropy, especially university advancement. Although disdained to be compared to sales organizations, the sophistication that abounds in university fund-raising today certainly has merit for their for-profit neighbors. Several important lessons for business solution sales immediately come to mind.
