I spoke recently at the Kishor conference to Women Professionals on Raising Capital. I really enjoyed the challenge of preparing for the talk as the subject was a business term not often used when working in the nonprofit sector.

When priming the presentation for the expected for-profit audience, I was surprised – though in retrospect I shouldn’t have been – by how much holds true when raising funds for either a nonprofit organization or a for-profit venture.

Moreover, after going over the slides, I was amazed how easily I could replace “investor” with “donor” in most of the examples. The fact that the session was attended by professionals from both sectors reinforced this belief, as well.

(The most notable exception to the above is the definition of traction, which is not shared by for-profit and not-for-profit companies.)

Upon further reflection, I was able to gleam three live-or-die principles that span the charitable and capitalist sectors. What follows are the slides of the from presentation and these three takeaways.

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