The Little Words Mean the Most

To Jeff, a co-conspirator who asked me to write a guest blog post...

 

No need to talk me into. At your service, Jeff. Give me a deadline.

 

+ PS: Whatever I write, feel free to edit. On my personal Mt. Rushmore are those editors who made my crap better.

 

"The D seems off for that context."

 

[He's talking about the ancient AIDA formula in advertising.]

 

Advertising IS different. You hope to drive response; that's ALL that matters. The cash register must RING. That's why you're spending money to make money.

 

In the nonprofit world these days, though, being accused as "transactional" raises eyebrows.

 

Being transactional was the entire point, when I worked commercial: you committed your money, then you got something in return. Give, get.

 

I think nonprofit marketers (i.e., fundraisers) have been bullied into shunning this basic trade-craft. Weak bosses, self-righteous program staffers, ignorant board chairs all play a role.

 

It's one of the oldest delusions in fundraising: entitlement. "We don't have to do shit. You just SHOULD give us your money ... because we ARE that worthy!"

 

------

 

No longer ... for at least 50 years?

 

The reasons WHY someone's heart gives to your charity mission are personal. Not to be trifled with.

 

{deleted: a rant about today's New Puritans}

 

And so ... what's the transaction ... what then do I GET, nonprofit donor ... in exchange? (Because neuroscience says "reciprocity" matters, in human interactions.)

 

Is your best response a glib, AI-derived, soulless thanking me for my online gift?

 

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Back to Jeff: I didn't mean that AIDA was FULLY appropriate.

 

I meant only that a grounding in AIDA changes your thinking. Donor newsletters aren't entirely passive; they can also trigger action. And based on our Zoomer, the newsletter under consideration is apparently NOT triggering action. And until it DOES trigger action, keep experimenting.

 

love cakes and the season for lobster rolls now arrives...

 

 

To Andrew ... who now knows more than I do about donor newsletters ... oh, about that approval committee you're saddled with

 

dear Andrew...

I knew none of this ... not at this level ... not this well quantified [he'd listed 5 criteria for success]. THANK YOU! ¶ We try stuff. Then we get one thing figured out maybe. Then we try something else. As I've said, it takes about 4 quarterly issues to get the mood right. ¶ The first thing we try to kill is internal committee review; but that's before we even sign a contract. A busted, dumb, lazy, "collegial" [universities], top-down ["This doesn't sound like me!"] approval process is the enemy of high-yield donor comms.

 

To a colleague/friend in Australia engaged in a fundraising campaign

 

This program wanted to engage me to write a case for support. I couldn't at that time. We parted friends. And we just reconnected, many months later. They'd decided to put the case on a back burner for now, as they worked out other important things. This very focused cause is helping to build a new generation of nationally-capable leaders, now in their teens, of aboriginal origins.

 

Dear [you] ...

 

My hunch: You're going to EXPLODE. The time is SO right.

 

BTW: from the world of case writing; at least 30% of the cases I start writing get stalled and never reach the finish line ... for various reasons. A common one? "We thought we were ready. But we weren't yet. Struggling with the case made us realize that."

 

Your case for support will write itself, when you finally need to engage a copywriter.

 

Your mission is SO strong ... and influences what comes next in Australasia: future politics, future economics, a next gen of leaders, addressing past harms, making Australia some kind of beacon for the world. (The US is not that beacon: European settlers went genocidal in 1675 and didn't stop until they reached the Pacific ocean).

 

I've had the amazing gift of being involved with an Indigenous-led museum here in the US over the past couple of years. They shifted my understanding of white privilege completely.

 

As a child, I selfishly thought I was born an underdog, because my family was lower middle-class; in a community of maybe slightly-more-affluent families. Clothing, roof, food on the table, ethics, life lessons -- always; still, never a new car. I didn't see -- couldn't judge -- what I'd been given at birth: I was white in a majority-white nation, in a majority-white town, with a mom who insisted I go to university. We didn't have a new car because there were more important things to buy for the family: like college educations for my sister and me.

 

I didn't realize for decades what a leg up my birth had given me in life ... until recently, schooled (gently) by my Indigenous friends (among many others) ... and by [you].

 

My sincere thanks, [dear you]....

 

Encountering your mission and vision changed me.

 

With deep respect from the other side of this struggling planet,

 

The issue was raised on LinkedIn....

 

Per Ben Miller, SVP of Data Science and Analytics, Bonterra...

Many nonprofits saw a surge of donations and donors during 2020 and 2021. Then in 2022 things started getting back to normal. Normal in this case is a declining donor pool for more than a decade. At the end of 2022 donors were 83% of what they were at the end of 2012.

Leading the charge, new donors have declined precipitously -18%. Plus it is more costly to get new donors.

His comments elicited a strong response from fundraisers internationally. My small contribution to the mob:

Like many of you in the FEP [Fundraising Effectiveness Project] family, I can speak from different perspectives: practitioner trying to raise money, new donor, monthly donor, major donor. And I now wonder if the 10% "decline" in US donors is something similar to climate change. >> I.e., physics; natural forces normally readjusting, in other words. ¶ I'm rushing off to lunch, so I can't check my data immediately. But it's my understanding that the # of nonprofits in the US alone has something like doubled in the past 15-20 years. ¶ Then you have John Lepp's recent anecdotal reporting on how slammed his mother-in-law's mailbox is every year ... more than 500 items coming in and ONLY one was a thank you to generous Dale. ¶ What is the sum of the research done by Dr.s Jen Shang and Adrian Sargeant at their Institute for Sustainable Philanthropy? In my non-academic interpretation: "When you like your donors, they'll like you back. And they'll express that through more giving and by sticking around." ¶ THE COMPLETE DONOR.... Interesting idea, Benjamin Mohler and Andrew Polter.

love bunnies...

 

Talking to friends ... maybe U entrepreneurs

yes U below come on

                                                                                                                                                                                              

this is how successfull

 

thank you foot

 

on flip

 

U see yourself in whatever frame

 

-----

 

been listening to the Jimmy Carter tributes

 

One insider camp called him "the meanist person I've ever met" ~ bcuz he wanted to get certain things done FAST

 

I have confirmation from a top-diplomat friend, who guided Jimmy in his post-presidency years around Nigeria: brilliant, impatient, a prick, clear-sighted; essential virtues NOT highly prized at that time, any time, in those armored limousines stuck in traffic

 

where are U, am I, on that spectrum? get more done? get people to like me?

 

 

OK, I thought this would be easy enough: "Monitoring" your office behavior is the new term for "surveillance"

 

Let a few friends know that I planned to change my e-mail address. Close a 30-year technology gap. Flush the toilet. Start over with BFFs.

 

Thinking about that, I laughed aloud in my home office ... and out of nowhere a robot wanted to know if I wanted paper or plastic or platinum handcuffs.

 

Huh?

 

My computer "minotaurs" my behavior? To what good end?

 

There are 330 million residents in America. The best good is all of them agree on which fashion handcuffs to choose? Now this is scary. I didn't know I was being "monitored." Without my knowledge or consent. But I am.

 

AND YOU ARE, TOO! I would say I am under surveillance. But our benign overlords hate that term. They prefer this: I am simply being monitored.

 

OK: I figured the "deep state" was nuts because the people who spoke about it were CLEARLY nuts (newly elected GPO house reps from MO) ....

 

Nothing about the "deep state" (Plan A: pull aluminum covers over one's head; tuck tightly; press microwave button labeled POPCORN) made sense.

 

Like there were two kinds of gravity.

 

Gravity one: your pants fall down. Gravity number two: your pants stay up ... but your neighbor's pants fall down, exposing his bony knees.

 

Oh, shit

 

 

 

She wants to know why, me, loud athiest, listens to Christian rock....

 

????

 

I dunno.

 

Good rock is good rock. Great musicians? Half the time I can't understand the lyrics anyway.

 

I'm moved is all. And you know what's the amazing part? I learned this from Alan Clayton in Slovakia. He started his workshop by playing some hard-rock song. He told us to get up on our feet ... and dance. And then after a minute or so he shut off the music; we settled back into our chairs. He said, "That's how fast you can change someone's emotions."

 

Now that's teaching.

 

love

 

dad

 

 

 

 

Suffering strep throat? Me, too. PSA below: Remedies I found recently....

 

HERE. It's that time of year.

Strep throat is a bacterial infection. It entered my Thunderdome last week, after a hike with friends and a meal. Strep is highly contagious. You can pick it up just by touching an unclean door knob at a restaurant's rest room (so, yes, continue washing your hands a lot ... and do NOT touch your face).

Anyway, America's shambolic (trust me, your first guess will be right, if you don't already know the adjective) health-case system has hit the jackpot: Covid-19 variants multiply faster than bunnies; flu remains a strong seasonal force to be reckoned with; there's a new player: RSV; and then there's this long-time teacher's pet, strep throat.

Bottom line: I can't get an appointment with a doctor anywhere within driving distance in near-2023.

Yet I can't swallow.

Understand: I LOVE my docs; they amaze me; I'm grateful.

But the SYSTEM (the web we're trapped in) isn't ready ... and 2022-2023 is a MILD test of America's "health-care system."

We all need to hear the demographic REAL truth about aging populations and our society's ability to cope (it can't yet ... or even close; although if you work in the non-profit sector you're trying to be helpful ... ).

------

The Mayo Clinic online pretty much confirmed my self-diagnosis. Low-grade fever. Headaches.

Worst symptom from my head down? Excruciating to swallow. Even a tassel of gently descending saliva bends me in half: with shouting pain. Try to stealth a much-needed pill down my throat, shielded past by an innocent luke-warm sip of water: puts me on my knees. Prognosis?

For two days my nutritional intake has been the occasional honey lozenge, all my throat would tolerate.

I've started to pray ("Dear Simone... If you can hear me...."). Finally, I find a doctor who will talk to me via telemedicine; PlushCare it's called. The online doc is careful. Thoughtful. Probing. Exhaustive. She prescribes! I rush to my nearest pharmacy.

Miracles happen.

And hallelujah in little more than a day my tonsils-flogged-across-broken-glass, those dramatic unh-unh swallowing symptoms begin to subside. Organs begin to rehydrate, expanding like kitchen sponges. Body shouts: eat! I hire an Uber. "Take me to the nearest All-You-Can-Eat buffet with a full liquor license."

The sun sets on another infection.

In the end I wondered, should I have gone to YouTube first? Here's what I found. Sounds solid, too.

 

My goal? ZERO clients

 

just

 

lovely ambitious

 

friends

 

 

An outdoor hotdog occasion to celebrate the land

Gina's new banana car; Gina firepit master; the provisions for 3 including Sam; the view @ sunset including a glacial erratic and a well-built dry-stone New England wall from the dairy farm that once clomped here