“..Consistent with social learning theory, individuals tend to carry beliefs about money and money skills learned in childhood into their adult lives…”

This week, I’m reading selected quotes from Money Beliefs and Financial Behaviors by Bradley Klontz, Sonya Britt, and Jennifer Mentzer, published in 2011.

Reflection Question:

• Which money script have you been operating in and how might you develop a new discipline?

Reflection on Quote:

An experienced campaign volunteer once told me that a capital campaign is like riding a wild, unbroken stallion without a saddle.  I’ve contemplated those words often as I coach clients.  When faced with an unruly stallion, we can either let the stallion take control or we can develop the discipline to work with him. The same applies to capital campaigns.  We can let the capital campaign spin out of control or we can develop discipline for the crucial elements of the campaign.  So, this month, we are starting a series on developing that discipline.  The first discipline we develop is becoming comfortable with inviting donors by unpacking our own beliefs around money before discussing generosity with them. 

During a capital campaign, these money scripts can allow the wild stallion to take over.  Those with money avoidance scripts can struggle with even inviting a potential donor to find out more information about the project. Those with money worship scripts tend to engage in magical thinking around one major donor that will complete the campaign without engaging a broader base.  Those with money status scripts can find crossing wealth classes intimidating when building a relationship with a more wealthy donor, and then approach that donor apologetically without confidence in the project.  Those with money vigilance scripts may find capital campaign work too all-consuming and focus on tasks that don’t move the campaign forward.  The good news is that, in my experience, once we recognizes our own money scripts, we can develop new disciplines in discussing generosity.

Copyright: Klontz, B., Britt, S. L., Mentzer, J., & Klontz, T. (2011). Money Beliefs and Financial Behaviors: Development of the Klontz Money Script Inventory. Journal of Financial Therapy, 2 (1)

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Music credit: Woeisuhmebop