Make Them Fundraise

“Here’s where you whip them into shape,” a voice next to me said. “Make them go out and fundraise.”

Ahh… would that I could just say the word, and the minions would follow.

Life’s not like that.

The situation was actually a board meeting where, as the board member in charge of fundraising, I was supposed to lead the charge into battle. In other words, get the board members revved up about raising $350,000 in the coming fiscal year.

The executive director, giving vent to her frustration, wanted me to berate them. Make them understand the gravity of the agency’s situation if they didn’t “do their jobs.”

I knew, as an imperfect board member, nay an imperfect human being, how I’d feel if berated. Sullen. Defensive. Kind of like a teenager who knows he could do better but just wants to get out of the room.

I didn’t want to be part of that – and I didn’t think that would work.

So I chose to go another route – with a praise-based, “catch ‘em with honey” approach.

I went around the room recognizing something that each board member had done that had contributed to our fundraising effort in the previous year. Even if it was marginally related to fundraising, but took some burden off of staff so that they could concentrate more on fundraising – I made the connection to each board member’s actions.

In other words, I made them feel like a valuable member of the fundraising team.

And then I paused.

“You all know how important this coming year is for this agency – it’s make or break time.” I said. “I know that just as you have all been part of our success in the past, that you will all double your efforts in this critical year – and I’m proud to be a member of your team.

Let’s go get ‘em.”

Success breeds success. Make it happen.

Of de Tocqueville and Exercise Philanthropy

Alexis de Tocqueville is well-known for his observations, while traveling America in the 1830s, on the countless voluntary associations – from musical societies to political parties – that Americans form to accomplish a variety of social purposes.

So, too, under this umbrella, come the myriad -thons (walk-a-thons, bowl-a-thons, dance-a-thons, dress-a-thons) of fundraising infamy.

In an op ed in last Sunday’s New York Times, Ted Gup marvels at the success, and the absurdity, of the walkers against hunger striding across his neighborhood. What better use could their volunteer hours be put to building houses or volunteering in direct service, he wonders?

But ah, this is America – where we love to band together, and to urge others to join the fray – and how we take responsibility for social change. Gup reconciles the appeal of the walks to the accomplishment of public good:

“Where abstract appeals on behalf of the faceless needy may fall on deaf ears, appeals from family and neighbors do not…It personalizes the issue, quite literally turning the abstract into the concrete, converting perspiration into philanthropy.”

Now as a fundraising professional, you might expect that I come down firmly on the pro-thon side. Or even that I shudder at the thought, knowing the work involved (I was part of the initial birthing of Transportation Alternatives’ NYC Century – a 100-mile route bike ride through NYC streets, to mention only one logistical nightmare I was unafraid to tackle in my youth.) But neither of these professional positions inform my take on this phenomenon.

I do applaud the generosity of spirit that leads people to solve problems together. Walking, bowling, dancing, dressing (yes I’ve heard of that one somewhere).

But I also understand how individual effort takes the place of collective, governmental responsibility for realigning the distribution of resources and opportunity.

We can walk all we want, but people will still go hungry, until there is a collective will to shape public policy to change that.

There, now I’ve said it.

Now I have to go back to sending emails soliciting volunteers for the local school’s “Run for Health…”

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Time To Retool

So Newt Gingrich goes on a cruise to get time to think.

(Or so he says.)

But those of us in the nonprofit world don’t exactly have that luxury. So how do we get thinking time – that span of uninterrupted brain space to de-pack and put things together in a new way?

Some of us do it through a day of working-from-home. Some take a weekend day. Some come in early, or come in late and leave late – after everyone’s left the office.

Do you notice a theme of solitude in here? For those of us in the field of fundraising – which is all about relationships – there appears to be a yin-and-yang of needing to be alone as a balance to the equation…

Some use summer for this purpose – as a time to clear off your desk, front-load various writing assignments, get set up to sail into a busy Fall.

Whatever tricks you use, it’s essential to take that space, or the job of fundraising becomes simply putting one foot in front of the other…instead of making new connections and finding innovative reasons why as-yet-unknown sources might gain meaning from supporting your cause.

The task of development is adding apples and oranges – putting it together. For every cause there is a reason…and downtime is the space to figure it out.

The Second Shift

I was thinking about this the other day – how technology has enabled all of us in the nonprofit sector to remain firmly glued to the second shift.

It’s the one where you leave work – but you don’t leave work.

Coming at it from a development point of view – gosh there’s always more to push up the mountain.

Coming at it from an executive director point of view – well there needs to be two or three of me, so maybe if I put in a consistent 3-4 hours a day of “stolen time,” I can keep all the balls in the air.

This is especially punishing – or fruitful – for those of us with children. Make it home for dinnertime, or bedtime, then head onto the computer for another couple of hours (or at the least, one hour) of “productivity.”

And while there’s the relief that we can walk out of the office while still fulfilling our job obligations – and concomitantly, can come in late knowing we’ve taken care of the urgent matters – there’s something unrelenting about this intertwining of connectivity and responsibility.

Is this what it takes to get our jobs done? I know it’s not limited to nonprofits, but it’s certainly endemic to them.

One strategy I heard from someone today was – “Take off weekends.”

Another – related one – was that when you have young kids, it forces a balance.

But we can’t all be in that phase of life, forever. And I don’t think a dog provides the same ”Pay attention to me – otherwise I’m going to put my hands on a hot stove” imperative to shift your focus..

Balance. The second shift both allows it – and undercuts it.

The Nay Sayer

There’s always someone with doubts. Pure human nature.


“We tried that [10 years ago] and it didn’t work for us.”


“Our donors won’t give those kind of gifts.”


“We’re not that kind of a board.”

When you’re dealing with a chronic complainer on your board, the best idea is often to pair them with someone who’s relentlessly cheerful – and unflappable.

Or…to take them aside and explain that you’re trying to give the younger generation a chance to flex its wings, and that maybe they could keep a lid on their cynicism just long enough to allow the younger folks to give it a shot.

But when the nattering nabob of negativity is in a position of authority on a board of directors, paralysis can occur.

And that’s in a best-case scenario – worst cases can include acrimony, back-biting, duplicity, or just plain rudeness and contempt.

Believe me, as a board specialist in hard knock cases, we’ve seen it all. Dysfunction can actually be benign – compared with malfunction.

So how do you manage with a nay-sayer on the board who won’t zip their lips? The short answer is: surround them with a cocoon of silence. Practice selective hearing. Focus on the light. Move on around them, despite them, and ahead of them.

But above all, do not place them in positions of leadership, in which they are entrusted with maintaining forward momentum. Because, at heart, they are interested in stopping progress, not stepping into the unknown.

And these days, we are seeing many boards stepping into unfamiliar vistas of fundraising and governance.

And we say - Go!