Fundraising Success

It’s too easy, too discouraging, and too obvious that fundraising is a BIG problem for those who do it for a living.
 
Everything is uphill, every new fiscal year starts at $0, and then there are our open rates (dismal), unsubscribes (terrifying), and the sacred pass-through rate that satisfies the auditor but still demands reinvestment in the cost of doing this business of raising money to do everything else but fundraising. (Can you say: learning to do more with less?)
 
And then there’s the personal toll – the constant demand for more empathy, mor gratitude, and more self-awareness than all our other possible professions combined.
 
We must champion the generosity of good people who are still learning to be good people with their money, defend them as the true heroes of our organizations in every word spoken, shared, and posted, and yet somehow promote our mission’s uniqueness, our program’s competencies, and the selfless sacrifice of our staff.
 
In a word: exhausting.
 
And we don’t (we can’t) allow ourselves to even think we’re ‘successful’ because it’s not our money – just our blood, sweat, and tears.
 
We must develop our own capacity for soft skills – impossible to quantify except in meeting budgets and unobliging KPI’s we dreamed would be do-able and reach-able at the end of the last fiscal year’s budgeting process.
 
And when we do make our budget we’re rewarded with an increase next year. The real good work is not in fundraising – it’s in the programs of our organization. So, as you’ve probably heard – success for fundraisers is like winning a pie-eating contest and the prize is a pie!
 
So I believe it’s time to define success… our success… actually, let’s redefine it, own it if we reach it or don’t, and celebrate it and not just romanticize the journey without end.
 
First… Yes, it exists – success exists in the world of fundraising and not just in meeting or exceeding budget projections. (And this may be the most difficult and important thing about our work – knowing what success looks and feels like and not being ashamed of it.)
I do hope you have some ideas about what success is for you, and to get us started I’ll share a few more…
 
The toughest part about success and our work is that most of our organizations don’t have a good, clear concept of what success actually is. That is, an end game hiding somewhere between ‘trying hard’ and ‘putting ourselves out of business’ success.
 
We’ve learned to justify our existence (and the humbling work of asking people for their money to do our thing), with such great, pressing, overwhelming, obvious needs that we’ve desensitized ourselves in the process of sensitizing people to give us their money.
 
Isn’t it obvious! (we exclaim) – the need is great, so we’re needed – and you should give us your money if you care about doing good… if you only knew…!
 
All the while around our office and in our meetings about metrics, we console ourselves with learning to live with small victories, not systemic change. We’re learning to be happy with consistency and impact. (Is there a better word to cover a multitude of short-sighted wins than the buzzword ‘impact’?)
 
But what if we demanded more of our organization’s mission, vision, and values? What if we asked those who benefit from the work of fundraising to be clearer and braver about the elusive notion of success?
 
What if our organization’s work wasn’t the perpetual business of asking people for money to do things that never have an end?
 
Now, if you’re in a niche that fills-in gaps left by local government and social service networks – things about people that just aren’t on the radar of lawmakers but do-gooders know it’s needed, necessary, neglected, and therefore justified – then bless you and make no apologies. You have your value-add, your ask – own it and you’ll find your do-gooders (they’re out there).
 
But if you’re like the rest of us – in the business of creating solutions, curing problems, and not just rearranging problems and calling it necessary – then you need a better, clearer idea of what success looks like. And not just for you in making your budget goal, but in remaking what success is for your mission.
 
That’s your value-add. Because you’re more than someone to get money from the ATM’s everyone calls donors (gosh, how I hate that word ‘donors’).
 
You’re in the success business….
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