We live in an age of information overload.
As a result, many of us (me included) have gotten into some really bad habits in an effort just to “keep up.”
These habits are not only killing your productivity, they’re killing you!
So today I thought I’d take a step back from offering fundraising tips and tools, and offer up some brass tacks advice to lighten your load.
And I want to take on the killer of all time sucks.
Email.
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The late Jerold Panas*, fundraising guru and author of a bunch of books (two of which, Asking and The Fundraising Habits of Supremely Successful Boards, I frequently use with boards to inspire philanthropy), left us with a gem of a final article published on the Guidestar blog: Nurturing Your Potential as a Fundraiser.
It got me thinking.
All of the traits Panas lists (he calls them “verities” that distinguish consummate fundraisers from those who, I presume, just dial it in) are important. I encourage you to read the full list (or even the full book from which they’re excerpted: Born to Raise: What Makes a Great Fundraiser Great).
Today I want to focus on one trait that particularly struck me.
Impatience.
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I happened recently on an article in the New York Times where the author, David Pogue, asked readers for their very best ‘life advice.’ I enjoyed it so much, I want to share some of my favorite pieces of wisdom with you. And, of course, I’ll suggest how this might apply to your nonprofit work and work/life balance.
Let’s begin!
Not every problem needs to be addressed immediately. Some will work themselves out.
“You’ve never seen a cat skeleton in a tree, have you?” When Alexandra Aulisi’s cat couldn’t get down from a tree, her grandmother reassured her with those words, predicting (correctly) that the cat would come down on his own. “This advice made me realize that, sometimes, you need to shift your perception of a problem to see a solution,” Ms. Aulisi noted.
— David Pogue, NYT
While it’s tempting to drop everything (e.g., whenever a new email appears in your inbox, especially if it’s someone asking for help), it’s important to assess if this situation actually requires a rapid response. If not, you have options.
ADVICE/OPTIONS:
Ever been on vacation and noticed a flurry of emails, back and forth, forth and back, from members on your team? Often by the time you’ve returned the ‘problem’ – as urgent as it may have seemed at the time based on all the email hyperbole – seems to have evaporated. I’m not suggesting you ignore legitimate, pressing problems; just use common sense and exercise judicious restraint, as appropriate.
I’ll never forget some excellent advice I received (actually from one of the donors I worked with during the years I was a young parent). While I was stressing about potty training, she told me: “Have you ever seen anyone at college who still wears diapers? If you don’t potty train your son now, never fear. His college girlfriend will!” It was silly, yet made a whole lot of sense. I didn’t need to oversee and micro-manage every little thing. Sometimes things happen on their own time frame. This was a reminder that patience can be a virtue.
When I managed a nonprofit team I inevitably had staff who struggled to meet deadlines. So I’d ask them to keep track for a week of how they found themselves spending their time. My boss, generously, even made funds available to send folks to time management courses.
It seldom worked.
Because most traditional time management advice involves cutting out unnecessary activities. Some of this is possible, but many nonprofit workers simply have too much to do in too little time. The “unnecessary” is sometimes hard to find.
Recently I happened on an article in the New York Times by Adam Grant, Productivity Isn’t About Time Management. It’s About Attention Management. In it, he talked about someone who couldn’t find any tasks to drop from his calendar:
“This is going to sound like a joke, but it’s not,” he confessed. “My only idea is to drink less water so I don’t have to go to the bathroom so many times.”
Oh, dear.
But Grant offered an interesting solution; a reframing of the conundrum. He suggests that time management is actually part of the problem, not a solution.
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One of my favorite parts of the longest job I ever held was that my boss welcomed innovation. If I attended a conference or read an article, and learned about something new I thought we should be doing, she was all ears. We talked out the pros and cons, together. Usually we made a plan…
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Invest more.
That’s it.
It’s simple. And it works.
You see, penny-wise fundraising may seem smart. You may pat yourself on the back for working “lean and mean.” But, in actuality, lean and mean is the antithesis of how a nonprofit becomes successful.
Penny-wise fundraising ends up being nothing more than mean.
Penny-wise fundraising takes you down exactly the wrong pathway.
Penny-wise fundraising reveals an underlying attitude fundraising is a “necessary evil.’ So… why not invest as little as possible in it?
Sadly, this approach to fundraising is doomed to failure.
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Too often, fundraising is relegated to an administrative function rather than a mission-central function. It’s viewed as a ‘necessary evil.’ As a result, either no one embraces it as central to their job description, or someone is hired and shunted off to a corner to do the ‘dirty work.’
Others don’t necessarily feel a need to cooperate or support the fundraising effort. It’s ancillary, not primary.
In fact, I’ll often hear executive directors or board members tell me, with some pride and a soupçon of defensiveness: “We can’t spend money on development staff right now; anything extra we have must go into the mission!”
As if fundraising doesn’t support the mission? Seriously, that’s the entire purpose of what nonprofits call ‘development’ (aka fundraising and marketing). It derives its purpose from ends served. It’s never an end in itself.
What this so-called ‘mission first’ logic fails to acknowledge is that everyone associated with your nonprofit is guided by a ‘mission first’ philosophy and has a collective stake in your nonprofit’s survival.
And for most nonprofits, survival – or at least some level of mutually desired success – depends on philanthropy.
When fundraising is treated as an afterthought, relegated to the development committee, or delegated to the development director, it disenfranchises a huge segment of folks who care about sustaining the cause. This means you’ll leave money on the table and fail to realize your mission potential.
It takes a dedicated village to generate sustainable, meaningful philanthropy.
I’ve found four ways nonprofits don’t wholeheartedly commit to fundraising. They all have to do with typical priorities that aren’t standing them in good stead.
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Guess what strategy you’re likely not using enough that really works to facilitate organizational growth?
And you want to keep growing, right? Because if you stop growing, you wither and die. You either want to do more of what you’re doing, or do what you’re doing better. Or both. And… you can! You should!
Ready to have your mind blown?
There’s a super simple thing you can do to dramatically increase your contributions.
You can easily put this in place before the end of the calendar year — when most donors make their gifts.
Trust me. You’re going to want to read the rest of this article.
Because you’ll learn there’s one thing growing organizations have in common.
And it may surprise you.
Ready?
DetailsHow do you get to the heart of what’s true and meaningful to your constituents?
It’s very easy. It’s also very difficult.
The easy part is simply to listen. As the old adage goes, “you have two ears and one mouth; use them in that proportion.” Sadly, that’s also the difficult part. Because, too often, we think we know more than we do. So we don’t look too closely. We make a lot of assumptions. And assumptions lead to a closed door.
Too often we don’t genuinely invite response or commentary. So there is nothing for us to listen to. Opinion frequently trumps knowledge. We say “I know what our donors think and care about better than anyone.” Or the boss says “This is the way it’s going to happen. Period.”
Too often those around us let us get away with this sloppy, self-validating approach.
If you think this may be happening at your organization, read on to see why this can be so damaging to your long-term success.
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Are you planning to do, more or less, the same thing you did last year for your annual fundraising push?
I mean things like:
I was moved to write this article after recently attending an excellent production of Stephen Sondheim’s “Sunday in the Park with George” at the S.F. Playhouse. I found it surprisingly moving, especially the final musical number: “Move on.” And, being me, I was able to relate it to something I find all too common in nonprofit work.
Something insidious that kills innovation and inexorably drains spirits.
It’s almost a disease.
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