The playbill listed it this way:
Following the Path to Donor Nirvana: The 6 Realizations Approach [this is an elastic program that can be adjusted to the available time by adding or subtracting examples]
Fundraisers: there are just six things you absolutely need to know to get a good return on your communications' investment.
Join Tom Ahern as he guides you through his Six Sacred Realizations of Donor Communications. (Cue the calming music.)
Realization #1: Your case for support is NOT about your organization's need for cash. It's about the savory, enticing opportunity you've put in front of the prospect. #2: Every donor communication sends a message. Unfortunately, it's often the wrong message. #3: Give your donor an important job to do....
Collect 'em all. Make lots more money.
This particular workshop began as a tribute to a detective novel series set in Bangkok, written by John Burdett. His chief character is a despairingly incorruptible Buddhist cop whose mother runs a brothel. I love these books. LOVE. I've been an off-again wanna-be too-lazy-to-be Buddhist-ish-inclined chaser after truth (and dilettantish tea lover) for many impotent decades.
Felt fundraising and donor-retention communications could use a few Buddhist principles. Make things easier to figure out. Make things a bit more spiritual.
Scott Harrison, founder, charity: water, 2006
'The dictionary defines charity as simply the act of giving voluntarily to those in need. It's taken from the word “caritas,” or simply, love. In Colossians 3, the Bible instructs readers to “put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.” Although I'm still not sure what that means, I love the idea. To wear charity.'
Nirvana has passed for me, though. The same six principles are thoroughly (like chain-link fence thoroughly) threaded into all my shows now.
Thank you, everyone, so many! who mostly unwittingly contributed to Nirvana. Your ideas (always attributed) reached thousands and thousands.