Conversations

We packed up and headed to New York this weekend with my wife and daughter to visit my family who all reside in the Buffalo area. We went to the Italian Festival which is a great experience. This is something I've been attending since I was a child and I have some incredible memories. The town is a small town about an hour outside of Buffalo, but the Festival is big and people come from all around to attend. It's nothing fancy, just lots of food, drink, performances by Frank Sinatra impersonators and a bocce ball tournament of course.

I haven't been to the Festival in several years and it's funny the things you tend to notice the older you get. That being said, this thing makes more money year after year. We can't get enough of it...hell, we basically went up to visit family around this weekend so we could attend. I ran into a great fundraiser there who now resides on the West coast but is originally from the area. We had a great conversation about fundraising in the world today, the challenges faced with it and how to thrive in an environment like this. Basically, we solved the worlds problems over a cappuccino and a cannoli. What it comes down to is staying aggressive, doing so in creative ways, but doing your homework and staying aggressive. The Italian Festival is a great example, they continue to ramp up their marketing efforts and realize that it pays off year after year as their profits rise. Granted, there are things they can do to create more revenue, but it works for them and no one is arguing with that.