Month: January 2015

What would we do without Shakespeare’s quotes to fit any occasion or mood? Thus it is with my seeming futile battle against the ever-mounting rise throughout the non-profit sector where development staff members become nothing more than paid solicitors.

Whenever I’m impelled to remind anyone who the fund raisers should be in their organizations, keeping in mind that there is often some energetic (negative) pushback, there is one of the Bard’s quotes that comes to mind:

“What’s gone and what’s past help, should be past grief.”
— Paulina in The Winter’s Tale

What’s gone and what’s past help seems to be true with how the development process has evolved over the past several decades, but my grief remains.

I’ve been fighting the development-as-sales battle for too many years, and I fear we are all losing to the growing trend of having boards of trustees believing that fundraising is someone else’s responsibility, and to development staff too often willing, or forced, to take on the role of solely, or mostly, being “the” fund raisers for their organizations.

There are, of course, some who do star in their role as staff solicitor for their organizations, but when they leave – and everyone leaves eventually – they will likely take with them their personal relationships with donors … and other contacts and resources, resulting in having the individual taking over their role in the position of pretty much having to start from scratch.

I have, and continue to have, ongoing communication with frustrated and frantic development professionals, people who are lamenting that they are not at all able or willing to be their organization’s fund raiser of first resort, but are de facto in that role by order of their boards or their supervisors.

I know I am mixing literary metaphors here, nonetheless I think it apt to bring in Arthur Miller, looking to his “Death Of A Salesman” as a perilous parallel to our formerly glorious fundraising “family” becoming more and more populated with despairing and failing Willy Lomans. As such, I fear we could very well be seeing the “Death Of A Profession,” as we once knew it.

I tell anyone within reach that we cannot continue to go this way and succeed with mostly a “smile and a shoeshine,” making the “sale” for today, but not being given the time and resources to build for tomorrow.

And, it all goes back to the Boards of Trustees and other volunteers. Volunteers are the lifeblood of a development operation, and Board Members are the most important volunteers of all.

There is no greater strength in a fundraising campaign than a board ready and willing to lead. There is no greater weakness in a campaign than where the board sees fundraising as someone else’s responsibility.

But, those formerly true and highly successful fundraising principles are now being abandoned in favor of the quick fix, using paid outside- or staff-solicitors.

And while there are some proven and workable aspects to social media, micro-giving and crowd fundraising campaigns, far too many organizations are all too willing to put all or most of their effort to those mass-media appeals made to mostly temporarily-caring audiences for the smallest of contributions.

The tried-and-true development process to ensure future financial stability is all but being abandoned for today’s limited vision and an annually renewed urgency to meet (mostly) arbitrarily-set quotas.

“How poor are they that have not patience!”
— Iago, in Othello

Next Week, our millennial, K. Michael Johnson, talks about how he’s ticked off some of his older colleagues with his so-called “new ideas.”

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Have a question or comment about the above posting?
You can Ask Tony.
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Have you seen
The Fundraising Series of ebooks?
They’re easy to read, to the point, and inexpensive ($1.99 – $4.99)
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If you’re reading this on-line, and would like to comment/expand on the above piece, or would just like to offer your thoughts on the subject of this posting, we encourage you to “Leave a Reply.” If you’re reading this as an email, and you want to comment on the above piece, email Comments to offer your thoughts. Your comments, with appropriate attribution, could be the basis of a new posting.

Every time I sit down to write a fundraising letter, or one of these posts, I suffer a period of anxiety. I’m worried that readers will reject my writing. Reject me.

At first my writing is flat, a collection of information and phrases with no life or meaning.

But after a little while I get over myself and start thinking about my reader: You!!

Of course, I don’t know you yet, but I can imagine you because I know so many people working for nonprofits and facing the challenges of fundraising.

Chances are that you are generous, intelligent, curious and conscientious. Also, probably, pressed for time, short of resources and at least a little less knowledgeable than me about direct mail. (If you know more about it than me, then I want to read your posts!)

Now I’m feeling better. We care about some of the same things and we’re here together so I can help you. You’ve made a little bit of time to hear me out, but I need to get to the point.

And the point is “You.” It’s the most powerful word in the English language, the word that names us, the subject of most of our waking thoughts.

You’ve heard the advice that inserting the word “you” into copy makes it more engaging to readers. This actually works, but the practice may strike you as a rather mechanical, even a Pavlovian trick.

But, the interesting thing is this: it’s a trick we play on ourselves as writers as much as on our readers. We can’t address our words to a person called “you,” without imagining that person.

If I’m writing for an environmental organization, I’m likely to imagine “you” as a healthy, active older married woman with an advanced education and broad interests in addition to a passion for sailing.

Now that I’m holding an imaginary conversation with an imaginary reader, my writing starts to read like speech, the words I would use to inform and persuade someone at my kitchen table.

You don’t know me, I think, but I know something you’ll be interested (perhaps shocked) to hear. I see my reader looking at me skeptically over her glasses.

But she’s listening, so I keep talking, building my story and showing how her informed monetary support can make a big difference in the outcome of my story. She’s nodding. Now I’m feeling persuaded and passionate myself.

It can take many more hours to complete final revisions, but that’s the beauty of imaginary conversations – unlimited do-overs. Meanwhile, I’m on my way to a complete first draft.

Thanks to “You.”

Next Week Tony Poderis discusses … Who Should be an Organization’s Rund Raisers.

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Jon is Vice President of Cause & Effect, Inc.
He has helped nonprofits develop successful direct response strategies and
effective donor communications for more than 25 years.
Contact Jonathan Howard or
visit the Cause & Effect website
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Have you seen
The Fundraising Series of ebooks ??
They’re easy to read, to the point, and inexpensive ($1.99 – $4.99)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

If you’re reading this on-line, and would like to comment/expand on the above piece, or would just like to offer your thoughts on the subject of this posting, we encourage you to “Leave a Reply.” If you’re reading this as an email, and you want to comment on the above piece, email Comments to offer your thoughts. Your comments, with appropriate attribution, could be the basis of a new posting.