Is the Energy Getting Better (and what does that mean, anyway)?

Last Friday, the Commerce Department announced the third quarter in a row of economic growth and increased consumer spending. However, according to a New York Times article last week, “While the expansion in output was welcome, it still has not brought the level of hiring growth needed to recover ground lost during the recession.”

What does this mean for non-profits?

Ah, isn’t that the $64,000 question…

To try and suss it out, let’s go back to one of the fundamental tenets of fundraising – the psychological underpinnings of capacity.

Maslow’s famous hierarchy of needs is directly applicable here. Maslow believed that human beings are motivated by unsatisfied needs, and that needs lower on the pyramid have to be satisfied before higher needs can be addressed. In other words, if you’re hungry (physiological needs), or you don’t know where your kids are going to sleep (safety needs), you can’t concentrate on pursing friendship (social needs), social status (esteem needs), or strive for justice (self-actualization).

So how does that apply to fundraising?

The fact is, that a huge part of the capacity to give is psychological. It’s based on feeling that you have disposable income – extra to your life needs – and not on actual dollars in the bank.

If you feel poor, no matter how much you have parked in CDs, you’re not going to be a major giver – you’re not going to feel like you have the space in your life to direct some of your assets to a nonprofit.

(Which is one of the reasons for the truism in fundraising that you never ask someone for a major gift who’s going through a divorce; the ground – financial and otherwise – is shifting beneath them and they don’t feel able to be generous.)

Likewise, in Fall 2008 at the beginning of the recession when it looked like people’s investment portfolios were going through some sort of extra-gravitational free-fall, the fear factor – of not being able to meet the physiological and safety needs that are way down towards the bottom of Maslow’s pyramid – was keeping just about every potential donor from making a major gift commitment.

I think that fear factor is starting to lift.

Back to that NY Times article: 

“Nate Evans, who owns a pottery-making business…said sales in 2009 were the worst ever but that they were just starting to see things pick up. ‘I felt like the energy of the crowd was better,’ Mr. Evans said of their first fair this year…‘Most of the people we talked to said it was better than last year. Hey, it’s not great, but it’s better than last year.’”

I guess that’s the watch-phrase of the day…

“Hey, it’s not great, but it’s better than last year.”

Hit By The Recession – And Asked To Give

Someone just asked me: “Why should we sink our resources into individual donor development…nobody’s got any money?”  She was asking the million dollar question: Is it still possible to raise money from individuals this year? 

Let me counter that with a case for giving that I’ve been using which is making money fly out of people’s pockets (feel free to borrow and use it).

It goes like this:

By this point, just about every single person in this room has been hit by the recession this year.  There’s nobody that hasn’t been touched, in some way.   But that makes it even more important that everyone steps up to the table and gives this year.  People aren’t going to be able to give as much as they have in past years – so it’s even more important for each of us to do our part. That’s why we’re reaching out even more broadly, and asking everyone, even people who haven’t given in the past, to step up.  If we all give, and we get a broader base, then we can all carry the weight forward together and get the job done. So I’m asking every one of us to dig into our pockets, and come up with what we can, knowing that it may not be as much as it was – but if we all do this together, it will be enough.

I have presented this case in group meetings, and literally had people come up to me and say: “I was one of those people and I wasn’t going to give, but now I see how important it is and I’m willing to do so.”

Of course, you have to have a good cause, and have targeted people who share your beliefs about its importance – but framing the conversation this way removes the barrier of “My income has downsized so I’m not going to give this year.”

The fact is, just about everyone’s income, or assets, has downsized through this financial maelstrom – making it even more important that we all step up to the plate however we can.

Try it – and let us know the results.

Voting…For Face Time

Just about every nonprofit seems to be urging its friends to “Vote for Us” in the Chase Community Giving Program.

Is this some sort of lottery, a "Survivor"-related nonprofit sweepstakes?

$5 million distributed among 500,000 eligible nonprofits...with 100 winning in the first round (that’s 1 in every 5,000)...an additional 5 in the second round...(5% of those 100, so 1 in 100,000 of the total eligible nonprofits).  

That’s some long odds!

You see where this is headed… although, truthfully, everyone doesn’t have an equal chance out of the starting gate – the race will, indeed, go to those with the greatest reach.

Yet there’s nothing wrong with this – as long as charities don’t substitute energy getting e-votes for face-time.

It’s so easy, isn’t it, to spend time at our computers typing away, virtually making our case, networking virally, tagging and friending and fanning…I’m as guilty as the next party.

But real impact comes one on one, building long lasting relationships that commit to staying the course over time to achieve real social change.

Sure there’s nothing wrong with e-voting – but it’s not enough to ask for.

So let’s not stop there – let’s build real relationships that can evolve into paintbrushes and tutoring and donated legal services and other sweat equity that leverages human energy and commitment into a real movement towards social justice. 

§       Why not table at a “Winter Fair” to gain community awareness and build your “friends and fans” base?

§       Why not hold a “wrap-a-thon” at a book store to publicize the fact that the local schools need book donations? 

§       Why not host a member reach-out night, where every member brings their cell phone and calls 5 other members to get their impact on the issues facing your community and catches them up on what your organization is doing? 

Not an ask – just a connect.

It’s the old saw about volunteering – that being there, on the ground, is key.  And that people have to see/hear/feel/touch/taste your impact before they’re moved to give, to ask, to be a real part of the solution.  And that doesn’t just come from clicking here.