Fundraising and Dread

Most mornings I awake with existential dread.  It wasn’t always like this—just the last three or so years.  A lot of my dread is political.  Things are happening in my country that, more than ever before, terrify me.  Not so much for me, but for my kids, my grandkids.  And for so many others here and around the world.  And it doesn’t look like it’s getting better any time soon.

My other dread is for my sector—the nonprofit sector.  I fear, a lot, about what is facing most of the nonprofits in coming years.  To be sure, much of it is of the nonprofits’ own making.  But that doesn’t give me any more confidence about the direction things are going. 

Today I read an article noting that young children are less inclined to be philanthropic than in the past.  Today, much of fundraising (and not just for them) is so incredibly transactional that donors—young and old—are not connecting with the nonprofit. They give—often we give—to get a prize, to help a friend, to avoid embarrassment.  We no longer seem to give because of a deep-seated belief that we can make a difference.

It’s not just us, of course—the donors at the lower end of things.  Major donors have long made gifts to get their names up in lights or to purchase access.  But in the course of making these larger gifts, they are drawn into the organization, introduced to others, shown the impact that charitable giving makes.  

The fundraiser in me still hopes that this translates somehow into caring passionately about the work that is done.

There are many donors for whom this passion is what makes them give.  They are caring and connected.  They are more invested in the impact of their gift than in the recognition that the giving could bring. 

The best thing about being part of the development staff is those relationships you get to build. Great fundraising happens when you can help to ignite your donor; help them to feel that the gift they are making is transformational—for them as well as for the organization.

In the same periodical where I read about young children, there was another article that posited that calling to thank donors doesn’t change a thing.  Those who are inclined to give again, will.  Those who aren’t, won’t.

If you are only considering one call that happens pretty close to when the gift was made, and if the call relied mainly on the caller talking, then yes.  I totally agree.  It won’t make much of a difference.  But if you use gratitude as a way to engage donors over time and to learn about them rather than telling them about you, I am convinced that the author of this particular study would see a very different picture.

Building relationships is not a one-sided endeavor.  Yes.  I want to know more about you, about your organization but, honestly, I want you to learn about me.  And I want you to use that knowledge to craft conversations about your organization in a way that has meaning to me.  

Most nonprofits have the bandwidth to develop relationships with very few—and those few tend to be the very wealthy.  That’s both necessary and extremely short-sighted.  

Yes, cultivate those who can give you the most.  But educate those who can give at any level.  Have conversations, programs, events that focus on the importance of philanthropy.  Teach people of all ages what happens, or more accurate, what doesn’t happen, if we—the nonprofit sector—were to disappear.  

Maybe, just maybe, if we can create a culture where taking care of others is at least as important as taking care of ourselves, that existential dread will recede.  

#Fundraising