I was reminded of one of the most famous cinematic lines the other day (voted #11 of the top 100 of all time):“What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate…”
Both times it appears in the movie Cool Hand Luke, it’s spoken in irony, reflecting on one-way communication that’s brutally unresponsive. The line is steeped in loss of dignity…in demotion of social status…in failure.
It mocks the niceties of polite discourse, presuming that some human beings aren’t worth the time of day.
So what brought on this reflection?
I was thinking about how we communicate with donors – both how important that is, and how it can settle into a routine that’s ultimately only one-way.
We tell them what we’ve done, in nice, graphically-appealing mocked-up newsletters.
We communicate our impact.
And then we check that off the fundraising calendar and move on.
But what about listening?
What about communication as understanding what your donors have to bring to the table – their insights, their passions, their points of view?
It’s tricky – it can get into some of the same territorial issues as board-staff communication (I’m the program expert and here they are giving me advice on my field) – but if we don’t approach donors from the standpoint of “We’re in this together to make a better world,” they certainly won’t take the lead in putting us on the same side of the table.
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