Your job as a philanthropy facilitator is to do everything in your power to make giving to you as easy, joyful and rewarding as possible. You are, if you will, a donor Sherpa. As a donor guide, you likely know things your donors don’t know. You have tools they don’t have. Your role along the pathway to…
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The biggest fundraising time of the year for most nonprofits inexorably approaches.
It can be stressful.
Don’t succumb to the stress. You’ve got this!
Perhaps you can’t do everything you’d like to do this year, but you can do some things.
Some you can do on your own.
Some will require support from technical and/or marketing staff.
Don’t become discouraged thinking you don’t have the time. Sometimes you don’t have time not to do these things.
None of these suggestions are big time consumers standing alone. They’re each little tweaks. Because often it’s the little things that count. That pack a surprising wallop.
So don’t save all your energy for writing your appeal. Help your appeal along by putting some of the dozen suggestions that follow into effect.
Even just one or two will make a difference.
Let’s get started…
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I’m a huge fan of the Greater Good Science Center at U.C. Berkeley, and often apply their research to nonprofit fundraising and marketing. This particular article really strikes me today, because it talks about times when we feel isolated from others: How to Find Your Purpose in Life.
Over my 30 years of practice as an in-house development professional, I’ve encountered a lot of people feeling isolated. It’s one of the reasons they reach out to social benefit organizations, because they crave community and purpose. Depending on what’s going on in the broader world around us, this feeling can be more or less at the forefront of people’s experience. When this feeling creeps in, this is a time for you to rededicate yourself to your fundamental role as a philanthropy facilitator. Or, as my mentor (and who some call the “father of fundraising)” Hank Rosso said: your role in “the gentle art of teaching the joy of giving.”
Here’s what it boils down to:
You serve your donors every bit as much as they serve your organization’s mission.
Please allow that to sink in.
You have a mission and purpose. Donors can help you get there.
Your donors are looking for purpose. You can help them find it.
It’s a symbiotic relationship. And you have a role in fostering that relationship. What is that role?
Your job is to facilitate your donor’s philanthropic journey. Their journey to discover their purpose.
So what’s this really all about?
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We’re entering an era of uncertainty.
For many, this has been a gut-wrenching week. And not just in the United States. People around the world are struggling with how to make sense of global events. Not just the American elections (though this is a huge sea change), but also escalating, senseless violence across the planet, threats to freeedom of speech, religion and assembly, the spread of fake news, a deepening divide between classes, and a creeping sense of dread as events begin to seem out of our control.
And, to be honest, this may feel like just the tip of the iceberg.
The world can seem a cruel and barbaric place.
Philanthropy – love of humankind — can seem elusive.
Yet it’s right here. In each of us.
Love is connected to the things you believe in. The values you hold most dearly. The dreams you have and cherish.
Now is the time to be more loyal to your values and dreams than to your fears.
Give yourself permission to trust your own dreams. Be open to them. Don’t critique them or tell yourself they cannot happen. Not now.
Be on your own side, and on the side of your family, friends, neighbors and the entire planet that needs you to restore balance. Don’t wait to nurture those dreams.
Make the internal commitment to come from a place of love.
Earlier this week I shared a poem from Tara Mohr. It began like this: “Today, I am more committed than ever to the things I believe in.”
I encourage you to think about what you believe, and what you’ll commit to doing — from today forward.
I do have some thoughts I’d like to share.
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But it’s not easy for you. It’s hard work. Because, inside the mind of a potential donor, many things are working against you. I don’t know enough about you. I can’t make a real difference. I don’t think of myself as a philanthropist. I don’t know how to evaluate one charity against another. I don’t…
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