Hey Reader, Something dropped yesterday that I think every nonprofit consultant needs to know about. And I want to give you my honest take before the panic sets in. On August 31, Candid made its AI fundraising assistant broadly available to Candid Search users. It can now help organizations find aligned funders, evaluate eligibility, analyze award history, recommend an ask amount, build prospect pipelines, and draft initial letters of inquiry. In plain terms: the tool does a significant...

Hey, Reader, This is Part 2 on yesterday's email. Let’s calculate EBITDA. EBITDA stands for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. For a small consulting practice, think of it as an operating health check: How much did the business produce after covering the normal costs of delivering the work and running the business? The calculation changes slightly depending on how you pay yourself. Let’s use a $150,000 consulting practice. If you pay yourself through payroll:...

Hi, Reader, This one is going to be a two-parter because it's an important money thing that I want to make sure we're wrapping our heads around. Most independent consultants are not sitting around wondering, “How much did my business earn?” We’re asking: Did the invoice clear?Can I pay myself? Did I save enough for taxes?Is there enough left for my actual life? So when someone says we should know how much the business earned, the reasonable response might be: Who cares? I made money. Here’s...