1) Think fundraising and marketing are different things that should be separated. Money follows a message, and your chances of securing financial support are directly linked to your ability to market the opportunity for providing it.

2) Go it alone. To make the opening as awesome as possible, Open Books found ways for its long-standing partners -- authors, programs, artists, etc. -- to get involved.

3) Confuse the medium with the message. All the update channels had their place, but they only worked when filled with appropriate content.

4) Be afraid of trying new things. In retrospect, it was insane to add a major development campaign to an already-packed project schedule. But the spirit of experimentation it demonstrated appealed to several major donors, and many store sections got sponsored as a result.

5) Lose sight of why this matters or why you have chosen to do this with your life. In the month leading up to the Grand Opening, team members were regularly doing 80/100-hour work weeks. It would have been easy to get overwhelmed or bitter, but the excitement of finally seeing the vision come to life was an intense motivator – and, for many, a validation of all the work to that point. People support passion. Let yours show.

1) Involve and empower everyone, both on staff and in your support network, to raise love and money for you. Share the information they need, the tools to keep spreading it, and your genuine excitement and appreciation that they’re doing so.

2) Learn from others. Many of the ideas for opening weekend came from past experience, other events, bookmarked sites, and saved articles. Inspiration is everywhere.

3) Find ways for people to support you at every level. Some people volunteered for one afternoon as painters. Others made major gifts to sponsor whole sections of the store. Having a range of opportunities was key to making sure that everyone could participate.

5) Remember what worked and do it again…but better. Open Books will never again have the chance for its first-ever grand opening, but every event, program, and campaign we’ve done since then has included lessons learned from the experience.

4) Know your organization’s personality and do things accordingly. Open Books is a colorful, creative, high-energy place, and everything about the grand opening reflected that, from the 23 paint colors on the walls and whimsical illustration for the invitations through the Mad Libs and feather boas at the VIP party. For a different organization, a totally different feel would have been appropriate. Be true to yourself.