“We should stop asking during this pandemic,” Board members of a few clients said. This struck me as curious. Many of these Board members were also business leaders. In their own businesses, they didn’t stop giving customers the opportunity to buy.
Have you heard the statement, "This is not the time to fundraise?" It's time to unravel that statement.
Sometimes we make our lives more difficult as fundraisers through unintended consequences of how we train donors to interact with our organization or others.
The more benefits and recognition we heap on the donor, the more we reduce the pure delight of being generous and doing good.
Earlier this week, I had lunch with a friend and fund development colleague, Catherine, who is doing incredible work at the organization she serves. We were chit-chatting about fundraising in general when she made a wonderful comment. "When people ask me about my job, it's not about fund raising. My job is about building connections, connecting people to community. I love connecting people to what they care about and to each other. It's all about [the donor's] need for connection in our world." This comment came on the heels of another eNews I read recently from Marc Pitman. In his reflection, he stated, "Last week, at the Nonprofit Storytelling Conference, fundraising legend Jeff Brooks shared a perspective I think will help you in making your 5 – 10 calls this week. First, he showed a picture of a soldier leading an army. Everyone was marching in lockstep. He said that nonprofits tend to think of donors this way: the nonprofit is out in front (like the lead soldier) leading an army of committed donors, willing to sacrifice for the nonprofit’s cause. He then showed a reversed image: a soldier leading the same army in a different direction. He said this is how…