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.

Born With The Urge

“Biologists see in humans a natural willingness to help,” The New York Times pronounced earlier this week. 

Michael Tomasello, a developmental psychologist and co-director of the German Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, writes in a recent book, Why We Cooperate, that “Children are altruistic by nature” – and naturally selfish.  Parents’ job, as those who’ve been there know, is to reinforce the cooperative behavior so as to tip the balance toward socially empathetic norms.

There’s something to this.

In Cause Effective’s 28 years of working on fundraising in the grassroots, we’ve been lucky to stand in support of hundreds of different cultures.  From immigrant money-lending circles…to childcare cooperatives…to African street vendors taking up a collection to send a deceased vendor’s body back to his country of origin…we have never come across a culture without a deep-seated norm of coming together to take care of its own.

The notion of a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation may be unique to the United States, but the urge to help others is embedded in basic human biology.

What lessons can we take from this?

The most important, for me, is to dig deep, past the rhetoric, the program descriptions and statistical statements of need, to connect with this fundamental human drive to lend a hand.  How does your organization help people?  And what is the tale you’re conveying to the donor that helps him/her fulfill this impulse toward altruism?

In other words – fundraising for mission, not for the scaffolding (program structure) that allows you to accomplish your mission.

The second lesson, interestingly enough, is connected to the idea that the innate human capacity for cooperation “seems to have evolved mainly for interactions within the local group,” as Dr. Tomasello writes.  It’s the notion of enlightened self-interest – that donors need to see the benefit to themselves, their peer group, their values, their social structures – before they’ll be moved to give. 

It’s why we place such an emphasis on story-telling in fundraising; we need to establish a foothold through which potential donors can find the comfort of “we’re all in the same clan.”  It’s the eternal search for the “we” of fundraising.

Altruism.  A term coined by Auguste Comte in 1851, to denote the benevolent, as contrasted with the selfish propensities.

Sounds like the basis of most nonprofits’ reason for being, doesn’t it?

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.

The End of Year Letter...A Call To Conscience

It’s end-of-year letter drafting time again, and people are adjusting their tone, calibrating their messages, trying to figure out how doom-and-gloom to make their letters.

Do we talk about how we had to cut back last year? How we had to put whole programs on hold, literally fight not to close our doors? Or how the families we assist, the kids we educate, the communities we serve, didn’t have the same options in their lives in 2009?

Or do we sweep all that under the rug because people are tired of bad news and it seems like it might be getting slightly better (here’s hoping that’s not just a mirage)?

It’s a dilemma, and I’ve seen people address it in every which way.  There’s no wrong call, as long as it’s done with dignity and respect for the intelligence of the reader – and from the viewpoint of the reader, not the nonprofit.

What do I mean by that? That end-of-year letters are not about how well you’ve performed your service (or the cuts you’ve had to make).

A well-written end-of-year letter targets what the reader cares about, and brings out that sense of the reader’s “best self” – that part of the reader that truly cares about others.

The end-of-year letter as call to conscience…making us a better, more committed community in the process.