The Little Words Mean the Most

At one level, cases are just ...

 

 

... well-researched attempts to answer

every "potential donor's" objections in advance ...

 

and replace those personal, private, skeptical, you can't guess

objections quickly with a vision that also matters emotionally

to the very

same people

 

 

 

Knock, knock: Who's there?

 

The future

you

 

 

No one approves this message

 

Talking frankly to someone in New Zealand today:

[she asked; i said...]

I live between Boston and New York, in what's called the Northeast/New England.

I misspoke about the Maori museum here. What I meant is that the Maori, as Indigenous people who survived somewhat respected and intact, are inspiring.

Where I live is where the Pilgrims landed.

These English religious zealots would have starved to death without Indigenous aid in the first few years.

Yet, within another few decades, as majority-white became the thing, war broke out between Indigenous and invasive settlers ... and a pattern of genocide first pursued and perfected in New England -- to move Indigenous tribes permanently off their historical lands -- became federal policy; eventually coast to coast, as the centuries rolled on.

Here we are in 2022.

The evil deeds have been done. Later US immigrants (like me and my Irish-Scottish forebears) have benefited from the opportunities.

In the writing I do for this Indigenous-led museum, I refer to early English settlers as "an invasive species." And that's the only thing I can do: try to change perspectives among today's beneficiaries, beneficiaries of centuries of slaughter and inhumanity and firepower and cruelty.

love and maybe changed minds ... @ best

 

Humane Martha's Vineyard responds to FL guv who inhumanely flew immigrants to this sandy island

Thank you, Roger C.

Some fundraiser asked on LinkedIn

I'll take a shot.

It's been at least 20 years since I heard the first complaint from a devoted fundraiser in Australia. She was a lifelong learner, as all top performers tend to be. But she worked at a school. Schools can be presumptuous (unbearable, smug).

And her headmaster second-guessed this fundraiser's informed attempts repeatedly. "That doesn't sound like me!" being a fave dismissal of her direct mail appeals

She asked in the after-session, privately: "What do you think I should do?" Immediate answer: "Find a better employer. This person's clueless and cannot be reformed." Which she did within the year, as she later crowed.

This wasn't a one-off.

The nonprofit world is DESPERATELY searching for competent fundraisers. The nonprofit world is actually, right now, in 2022, BEYOND desperate for such. (I have real-life recent examples.)

THEREFORE: If you, fundraiser, hold your ground with your employer. If you insist: "Let me do what I think I know how to do ... and what I think I have the training to do ... then give me a year, no questions asked. Two years would be better, but ... I know you and the board are impatient as hell. Just let me demonstrate fundraising improvements in 12-18 months ... let me move standard needles ... WITHOUT your demoralizing second-guessing, without harping committee interference."

PS: "If you see no improvements in our fundraising program (and, BTW, that usually takes 3 years, not 2), using standard industry measures, then fire me."

"That's my promise to you. I want to succeed. Just don't get in my way, please. Take the pledge." (Well, there is no such pledge from so-called "leadership," alas. But there should be!)

 

Presented a pay-for SUPER-webinar today: Some stats

 

Ran officially from 1 PM to 6:47 PM, incl. all you can eat Q&A from 2:30 PM on

 

8 countries attended

41 states & DC

8 Canadian provinces

There were 91 questions

 

Totally beat to shit

 

INCREDIBLE!!!!

 

Insider v. outsider

 

A quick email to someone who wondered what I thought about something:

The details of your programs are close to irrelevant to outsiders.

Insiders care about those details, as it should be. That's their job.

Outsiders? They care about themselves (meant NEITHER sarcastically NOR judgmentally). People want to act consistently with their values, fears, hopes, etc.

 

You don't convince.

You connect.

 

nothing goes according to plan

 

Hands up if you agree?

instinct? dreaded experience?

 

Which brings me to this problem

And why you/me/we have a plan B, a plan C and

OMG

throw life vests into freezing waters and hope

someone survives to tell the tale

 

The story may die. But someone needs to learn.

 

Jane, a fundraising consultant in North America, asked....

 

1. STEWARDSHIP – What do you think of sending a donor-centered impact report (newsletter format) with ask and reply device in place of a holiday appeal?

1. I would predict that the report will bring in less revenue, Jane. My opinion.

     When you send an impact report with an appeal, you're shoving 2 things down the prospect's throat.

     One thing shoved down the throat produces better results ... usually. FOCUS on the ask!!!!!!!

     Still, a hospital impact report that is "donor-relevant" can produce significant added income. I'm just not sure year-end is the right time for such an impact report.

     Oct-Nov-Dec is the giving season in North America. People expect appeals. Send them what they expect. Of course, you COULD include a buck slip that celebrates what donors have accomplished in the past year. That would be relevant.