What charitable giving feels like for donors

Here’s what fundraising and giving looks like to us fundraisers:

We think we are leading an army of “our” donors in the great work that our organizations are doing.

That’s not how it looks to our donors…

Here’s what giving looks like to donors:

In the donor’s world, she is not part of “your” army of donors. It’s almost exactly opposite. Your organization is part of “her” army — the charities she has assembled to accomplish her mission in life!

When you understand this, you can change your fundraising to a new and more relevant orientation. You stop trying to recruit donors to be part of your amazing mission. And you start asking to be part of the donor’s amazing mission.

You stop talking about yourself.

You start talking about the donor, and how giving to you accomplishes what she wants to make possible. Her action. Her values. Her mission.

(This post first appeared on October 30, 2018.)