Supporting the "power of people to do good."

"Fundraising is the power of people to do good." Armando Zumaya ends his essential article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review entitled Re-Embracing the Work of Fundraising (click here to read the full article). The article says what most fundraisers know and want to say but don't, mainly because no one in their organization cares. How many of us have faced the challenge of creating a solid fundraising plan without the proper financial support? Short-term thinking by leadership and Boards can make our jobs very hard.

He breaks the issue down into five significant issues that fundraisers face. I want to explore number three and number five - Underinvestment and No New Givers. 

One activity that can confuse boards and leadership is an acquisition campaign, which is how one gets new donors. I was talking about this at a conference, and one of the participants told me that they had to deal with a board member who declared during a meeting that acquisition campaigns were a Ponzi scheme. The question I ask when I face pushback on acquisition campaigns is if the organization does not do them, where will the new donors come from? How will the organization increase gifts from individual donors? Some of whom will have excellent Life-Time-Values. The article looks at this underinvestment along with others. It is essential to track and report on acquisition donors carefully and to show how the campaign pays for itself over 3-5 years and garners unrestricted income.

"Fundraising is the power of people to do good" is how Armando Zumaya ends his essential article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review entitled Re-Embracing the Work of Fundraising (click here to read the full article.) The article says what most fundraisers know and want to say but don't because they fear that no one in their organization will understand. For example, how many of us have faced the challenge of creating a solid fundraising plan without the proper financial investment? Short-term thinking by some non-profit leadership and Boards can make fundraising success in our jobs significantly harder than necessary. 

Mr. Zumaya breaks the issue down into five significant issues that fundraisers face. I want to explore number three and number five - Underinvestment and No New Givers. 

One activity that can sometimes cause confusion for boards and leadership is an acquisition campaign, which is how one gets new donors. I was talking about this at a conference, and one of the participants told me that they had to deal with a board member who declared during a committee meeting that acquisition campaigns were just Ponzi schemes. The question I ask when I face pushback on acquisition campaigns is if the organization does not do them, where will the new donors come from? How will the organization increase gifts from individual donors? Some of whom will have excellent Life-Time-Values. The article looks at this underinvestment along with others. Admittedly, tracking and reporting on acquisition donors carefully and regularly is essential. This will demonstrate to leadership and boards how the campaign is paying for itself over 3-5 years and is increasing overall unrestricted income.

The other thing that, for me, is vital and typically undervalued and underfunded is professional development. I want my fundraising team involved in organizations like the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), the local chapter and the national office, the Direct Marketing Fundraisers Association (DMFA), and many local based-organizations. I also encourage membership in culturally specific organizations like the African American Development Officers, along with organizations focusing on gender, AAIP, LGBTQ, and other affinity groups. The problem is paying for the membership dues and workshops. I had a supervisor once whose reason for not wanting to pay for memberships in AFP was that "the only point of the organization is job searches." They weren't interested in my growth in the field or my ability to learn new techniques to enhance the organization's fundraising practices but in "job searches." Only some fundraising organizations are this short-sighted, but as the article notes, many can be. 

Lastly, are salaries. The article really delves into the pay issue. First, let's remember the average tenure of a fundraising professional is only 16 months. In most studies, compensation is the reason for this statistic. The pay for most fundraising leadership is satisfactory, but that salary level rarely trickles down to the rest of the staff. We can be particularly conservative in hiring entry-level staff. I've heard senior development professionals use their experiences of 20, 30, or even 40 years earlier as an excuse - "when I got started, I was just happy to have found a job in the field, and I understood that higher pay would come someday once I had learned something." The article goes into other funding short-sightedness that affects fundraisers' ability to "do good" for their organizations.

Of course, every organization's leadership and board should pay close attention to the second issue from the article. Here is a Link to the Article

 

It seemed like a good time to take another look at this post from 2021.

June 2021

Are You What You Wear?


June may seem like an odd month to write about what we wear to work. But as we move into a new phase of the pandemic, more of us return to the office, and things settle into a new routine, the question of what to wear comes up. Now I am a middle-aged African American man working in a major metropolis, so I can only talk about this from my particular perspective. 

The New Yorker Magazine recently posted an interesting podcast on the subject that had a good deal to say about why we wear what we wear to work - https://tinyurl.com/kdav7ya9. I highly recommend you listen to it. 

Personally, I wear ties and sometimes suits. I like the convenience of reaching into the closet, pulling out a white shirt and pair of pants (or a suit), and grabbing a tie. It is just easy. Now I am also a big believer in having a "look." A way people see your outward self that you define.

Now I will freely admit that being from the South, being "dressed" is cultural with me as well. When I was growing up, people just dressed up more than they do now. I also grew up feeling that as a person of color, I had to be cleaner, smarter, and more polite to truly achieve.

Then I decided to be a fundraiser. When I started, there were not that many people of color who were in the field. I was lucky enough to work for two experienced fundraisers of color early in my career. I learned a great deal from them about raising money and maneuvering my way through the society of those supporting the non-profits for which I was working.

Now I am an experienced fundraiser with over 25 years of working for all kinds of non-profits. I manage staff, work with the Board, and help lead the organization. Do my ties and suits help? Well, I don't know for sure. I know I want people to be comfortable handing me a check or, with my help creating a planned gift. But what I can't be "visually" is a different person for everyone. I have to be the person I am. The one who is comfortable in his skin - as much as anyone ever is - who understands the dynamic between his position as a fundraiser and the people he works with to support the organization's work.

At the end of the day, I wear a tie and a suit sometimes because I like it. I look good wearing it.  And I hope people feel comfortable with me as I do my job.

  1. June 2023
  2. May 2023
  3. April 2023
  4. March 2023
  5. February 2023
  6. September 2022
  7. August 2022
  8. June 2022
  9. April 2022
  10. January 2022
  11. October 2021
  12. September 2021
  13. July 2021
  14. June 2021
  15. April 2021
  16. March 2021
  17. February 2021
  18. January 2021
  19. December 2020
  20. November 2020
  21. October 2020
  22. September 2020
  23. July 2020
  24. June 2020
  25. May 2020
  26. April 2020
  27. February 2020
  28. January 2020

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