The Little Words Mean the Most

From a certain UK-based guru (the real kind, not the self-ordained)

 

... you are in my thoughts and I wanted you to know there is a real stand-out quote of yours I use everywhere:

“baby boomers are the largest cohort of potential donors ever seen on earth… so DO continue to stereotypically insult them. It makes it so much easier to see which charities are idiots....”

So many charities are STILL treating BBs as idiots, this good, wise, seasoned, long-suffering star-quality-successful guru rummaged on ....

 

I have mermaids in my family tree

 

true

 

true

 

sad story, that

 

My witch and I exchange healing stanzas

 

"...determined to save the only life you could save" ... Closing thoughts from a poem by Mary Oliver

 

 

Thought that very same sort of thought today

almost anyway close

 

while hiding from life on the floor in our tub

huddle-hosed by a long hot shower

the closest I am to spa relief

a pilgrim's few feet away

from our once-upon-a-time bed of justice

 

Soaked again and realizing:

I don't have all that much time before

I'm a car on blocks minus tires

 

 

 

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,

 

Came the bouquet

Doorbell rang....

This arrived, courtesy of Sim TWO. Why? Because I was having an "in the dumps day-before phone call" ... and Sim TWO was trying to perk me up ... which she did, shockingly!

Sim ONE was OUR (highly) original Simone. Simone Joyaux. Kind, generous, accepting, mind-opening teacher of thousands ... including many she didn't agree with politically.

Sim TWO was her beloved student at St. Mary's Uni. in Minnesota.

Sims ONE and TWO bonded over SO many things: especially social justice.

 

They like me, they like me not?

 

Well, story short: this particular United Way in the States gets good results and rejuvenated its recent income USING direct mail ... which can be a modern companion to the traditional United Way financial workhorse: workplace giving.

Another story short: the workplace has changed a LOT since for awhile ... and then there's the pandemic (offices emptied).

So NOW what do community-chest campaigns like the United Way do ... to keep doing good? (Hint: try new things? Outreach in a new way?) Here's a final slide from a PowerPoint show developed by a United Way that's succeeding by applying new ways of raising funds for the common good. I especially (unblushingly) liked the reading list (in great company; some of my many mentors):

 

To a trusted ED of a beloved regional community foundation asking for a speaking date

 

[To him; could have been her; could have been any pronoun....]

 

The best I can say is this: in theory that date works (and thank you for the invitation). It's open on my calendar, in other words.

 

Honestly? I haven't done an in-person presentation since early 2020, March. I was leaving Scotland after a 2.5 day masterclass on the banks of Loch Ness; Simone was at my shoulder, making things SO much easier. We all knew something was odd because the big Chinese delegation had cancelled at the last minute. Suddenly they were forbidden from traveling. Simone and I flew back to the States, on small planes, then bigger planes.

 

Within two weeks the real news hit front pages: global viral deadly pandemic.

 

In the year previous, I'd done 36 presentations, mostly live. Simone was doing the same. Airplanes every 2 weeks for us.

 

In 2020, after we returned from Scotland, I did ZERO in person. Her, too.

 

[To him/her/regional foundation:] I'm not out of practice exactly. Today, for instance, I did a 1.5 hour webinar with a record crowd from 8 countries re: cases for support ... then answered audience questions for another 2.5 hours, alongside a guest expert. So, yeah, I still practice ... just not in person, in breathing distance, since March 2020.

 

Being in front of a live audience is different ... and better!

 

What I hope you'll garner from this wandering confessional: times have changed; I've changed; my dear beloved mainstay Simone died in the meantime; and maybe the rail gauge I run on now, at age 75, isn't what you need.

 

In case this sounds TOO desperate, I have a great, international expert, mid-50s, to recommend: [first name last name], who lives near you. She's a top copywriter; works internationally ... and has at least one current [nearby] as a client. And she's nice. And patient. And SUPER-well-informed (as you can discover for yourself from her blog).

 

Just saying,

 

What happens when a new career star equipped with Post-It notes encounters a (hopefully) helpful how-to book

 

 

Thank you, David Stamps....

 

 

Talking to my doc

 

As Ashley refers to hers, Dr. Kane is AKA "my paid best friend," seen every Monday at high noon; a grief counselor; and heck knows how many muskrat-chewed bones I'd be right now without him

[why I cancelled this week's session]

 

Doc: Things are going alright, actually. By current benchmarks, anyway. (Thank you; take credit.)

 

But I'm deep into working (and it's just past 9 AM) ... and don't want to drive to Providence.

 

Interesting development: Romania called [yeah, I had to look it up on my globe, too] ... they want me to keynote their national fundraising conference. These ex-Soviet states have moved big time into what's called the Third Sector (nonprofits trying to deal with local problems). Russia has one of the fastest growing "third sectors" on earth. Putin sees them as dangerous to him, of course.

 

Anyway, please forgive me for cancelling this Monday. I'm just going to stay home in Foster and work my little heart out ... then go back to bed.

 

One mental breakthrough maybe: I switched tense.

 

I'd been saying as I slammed pillows, "Simone, you were the greatest gift in my life."

 

This morning I reworded: "Simone, you ARE the greatest gift to my life." Felt a glow: Simone is my future, not my past.

 

 

My working definition of donor-centricity

Let's try this one more time.

Someone asked what I thought. The reply: "Retention depends on 3 things: asking, thanking, reporting. Asking means we grab them by the shoulders and share spit. Thanking means we reach into their chests and shake their hearts profoundly. Reporting means we adopt them and explain their family obligations and joys."

Key word: retention.

In other words, technically speaking, with all the research and results left in (and politics parked at the door), donor-centricity is about retention, hence greater Lifetime Value (LTV). Ken Burnett's book on Relationship Fundraising forecast the immense potential when a charity focuses on LTV. Key researchers, Dr.s Adrian Sargeant and Jen Shang --- bolstered worldwide by many fundraising practitioners willing to take a chance on a different way of talking --- proved the point: donor-centricity (technically defined) increases giving, often reliably doubling contributions within a fairly short period of time (18 months?).

 

Sim One: trying to say one more thing

 

I would have laughed, my love.

Not to your face; to my face, I guess. Share us both some pain.

Or a morning coffee where pain is sipped ... except your drink would have been sputtering, reluctant, what is this? Cocoa? Cheers!

I read like red meat whatever people kindly shovel my way. Books about Jesus. Books about surviving. Books about wisdom. Great thoughts. Books that build a tall column of hope and understanding and future next to my now-alone bed. Welcome to new foundations.

Thank you, Sim One. Thank you. Thank you.

For lighting the way, down many roads and lanes and alleys. Lighting me up, anyway. Now it's my sole job: to keep our flashlight batteries fresh (flashlights are scattered around the house like mice) ... and the generator you won into our home during a hurricane that caused a week's worth of outage while I was away in Australia; to keep that extraordinary machine in peak condition (I haven't and the snow forecast for the next few days isn't good)