Brakeley Briscoe

BBI Executive VP and Managing Director Alden Briscoe recently attended a Networking Happy Hour event for AFP Silicon Valley, reminding us that while we work hard and take our roles seriously, there’s always an opportunity to laugh and enjoy yourself. Here’s to having fun while on the job!

"Action absorbs anxiety" We’ve been canvassing our clients and colleagues about their concerns and needs for the near and long-term. On the list of real worries are how will the current upheavals: • How will this affect our mission • What should our messaging to our donors and clients be • How will this affect our funding sources • How do we strategically plan in a constantly shifting landscape • What is our political exposure And we’ve been hearing that boards and trustees are often seemingly taking a wait-and-see position. We disagree with this. Contingency planning is a rational and prudent way forward. Dan Harris, a retired American journalist, reminds us that “Action absorbs anxiety.” #nonprofitleadership #futureofnonprofit #takeaction #philanthropytrends

 "Millennials and Gen X want to share wealth now. Boomers will wait until they're dead." Daniel de Visé, Personal Finance Reporter for USA Today, wrote an article discussing the results of a survey conducted by Charles Schwab. Participants included more than 1,000 Americans who had at least $1 million in investable assets. One statement in particular identified a difference in how Millennials/Gen Xers and Baby Boomers view sharing their wealth: “I want the next generation to enjoy my money while I’m still alive.” About 50% of Millennials and 44% of Gen Xers agreed with this statement, as opposed to 21% of Baby Boomers. Another statement that highlighted this divide was: “I want to enjoy my money for myself while I’m still alive.” 45% of Baby Boomers agreed, while only 15% of Millennials and 11% of Gen Xers felt similarly. Other studies, including the 2024 Planning & Progress Study from Northwestern Mutual, had similar results. While we aren’t interested in discussing if one mentality is better than another, we are interested in the rationale behind these beliefs. Theories include the contrast of those in the “Me Generation” (a term coined by journalist Tom Wolfe in 1976) and those who struggle to achieve the “American Dream” (a term that gained popularity in 1931 thanks to businessman and historian James Truslow Adams). What are your thoughts? What does this mean for the future of fundraising? Do your experiences align with the survey’s findings? To learn more, read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/gpmNxNDU

How to Opt Out of letting LinkedIn Use your data to train its AI (this only works going forward. It won’t affect any data LI has already collected.) Log into LinkedIn and go to account settings. Navigate to the “Privacy” tab. In the “Data privacy” section, find the option to manage how LinkedIn uses your data. Opt-out of having your data used for AI training by toggling the appropriate setting.

We salute Stephen Peck, longtime U.S.VETS CEO and Marine veteran for faithful service in the military and at home. Mr. Peck will retire from U.S. VETS at the end of 2024 having served more that 28 years at the largest nonprofit service provider dedicated to preventing and ending veteran homelessness—14 of them at the helm. BBI consultants George A. Brakeley III (who, like Mr. Peck, served as a Marine artilleryman), Susan F Rice, and Alden Briscoe have had the privilege of working closely with Mr. Peck and his U.S. VETS team for the past four year.    U.S. VETS is one of three partners in the West Los Angeles Veterans Collective, along with Century Housing Corporation and Thomas Safran & Associates. The Collective is conducting the monumental Veterans Promise Campaign to raise $188 million, which is the philanthropic component of a $1.4 billion project that will create what will be the nation’s largest residential community for at-risk veterans and their families. The U.S. VETS team is the chief fundraising arm of the Collective and to date the Campaign is halfway toward its goal.

This newsletter does not take sides on political issues; It is, however, interested in political discourse, and it decries the focus on name calling and denigration of political opponents which we are seeing in our current political contests. However, the current name calling and criticisms of opponents’ characters are not new. One historical example is the following: In 1824 John Quincy Adams was elected president of the United States, only to be defeated by a landslide for re-election in 1828 by General Andrew Jackson. Adams was a man of letters who spoke French and German fluently and read Latin texts in their original. He was a graduate of Harvard. Jackson had minimal formal education. In 1833 Harvard University decided to confer an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws on then President Jackson. The President of Harvard went to visit John Quincy Adams to urge him to attend the ceremony. Adams’ response was: “I said that the personal relations in which President Jackson had chosen to place himself with me were such that I could hold no intercourse of a friendly character with him. And independent of that, myself an affectionate child of our alma mater, I would not be present to witness her disgrace in conferring her highest literary honors upon a barbarian who could not write a sentence of grammar and hardly could spell his own name.” COMMON, JOHN QUINCY, TELL US WHAT YOU REALLY THINK!