The Balanced Perspective

When I took my son to the eye doctor last week, he came home with an assignment. Too much close work, too many screens…he’s supposed to balance that with a view out to the horizon every 20 minutes or so, to reset his perspective.

Well that’s certainly a life lesson.

For those of us involved in fundraising, the pressure to produce, especially at year-end appeal time, is sometimes so unrelenting that the only possible response appears to be putting our heads down and soldiering grimly on – no looking up till New Year’s is over.

Last year at this time the modus operandi was simply duck and cover. Who knew how donors would respond, so just get the letter out there and hope for the best.

This year, it’s not so scattershot. But, in a way, it’s more pressured, since if people are indeed giving again (though some times in smaller amounts), then we’d better find the right pitch, the right vehicle, the right asker…it’s possible, and we’d better get it right – our organizations’ futures depend on it.

Talk about pressure!

So, back to the idea of picking our heads up for perspective…at the time of year it seems most out of reach.

One of the most important functions of a board of directors, I believe, is to provide space (and a nudge) for the organization to focus on the big picture. This is as true in fundraising as in program development or marketing/visibility. But board members can get just as stuck as staff in the day-to-day fundraising pressures, especially since fundraising is one of the areas in which board members are expected to be actual implementers, as well as overseers.

For example, how many times have you seen board members completely woven in to the details of event planning – what the menu is, what the invitations look like – to the point that they can’t step back and make sure that the event is on target to meet powerful institutional goals, like cultivating new askers or reconnecting with alumni?

Or, especially relevant for this time of year, how often do board fundraising cheerleaders get caught up in nagging board members to submit a specified number of names (“Everyone needs to give in 20 names for the annual appeal”), without strategizing about whose connections would be more effectively served by setting up in-person meetings, or in some other way channeling board affiliations towards the agency?

It’s so important for a nonprofit to balance long-term and short-term concerns, to be able to respond to its environment and also to be focused on shaping a pathway out from its current conditions. And above all – in resource development as well as program direction – it is the board’s charge to make sure this is so.