Hildy Gottleib’s work is always all kinds of interesting. We may hail from different neighborhoods of the fundraising universe in terms of our metaphysics and attendant terminology.

But we often end up in surprisingly close proximity in terms of the practices we recommend.

Like maximum, sheer, unadulterated transparency.

I’ve long said that development is something you do with donors, not to them. So I’ve been watching appreciatively as Hildy builds her brand new nonprofit organization totally in public, every seam showing.

It makes for fascinating reading.

Because Creating the Future’s values are rooted in The Pollyanna Principles, we know that authentic engagement requires authentic transparency. We have therefore chosen to make all this organization’s major decisions by transparently engaging discussion.

We are building our board openly, on line at Hildy’s blog (you’ll find some of that discussion here Click ).

We are openly sharing every aspect of our fundraising – sharing our strategy, our target audiences, our progress (beginning here Click ).

We have posted our short-term interim budget as well as a video sharing our plans and goals (that’s here Click ).

Transparent engagement is being built into Creating the Future’s bylaws (we talk about that here Click ).

As I say, the terminology and founding principles Hildy lays out in her book won’t ever be mistaken for The Whole Life Offering Ten, but our practices are certainly complimentary.

I’d love to beat her to the punch with an online Bylaws Wiki. In the mean time, I hope you’ll join me in adding her blog to your RSS feed so we can keep up on the transparent cutting edge of nonprofitdom that’s in full view at Hildy’s new org, Creating the Future.

Best of luck, Hildy. We’ll be watching.