Hat tip to Seth Godin who reproduced Sasha Dichter’s Manifesto in Defense of Raising Money which begins “I’m sick of apologizing for being in charge of raising money.”
It seems to me a must read for anyone who is in the position of raising money which includes pretty much everyone in an organization since theoretically everyone must be part of the organization’s narrative. As you read, don’t get side tracked with thoughts about how his cause is so much more worthy of donations than your own. There are many elements that contribute to personal and societal health.
Dichter basically feels people approach fund raising from the wrong perspective seeing it as a chore rather than an opportunity to evangelize about the change you want to effect. For me the third point he makes after asking why people are so afraid to ask for money seems the most salient.
“…wealth is associated with power, and not having wealth can feel like not having power. So going to someone who has money and saying, “You have the resources, please give some of them to me” doesn’t feel like a conversation between equals.
How about this instead: “You are incredibly good at making money. I’m incredibly good at making change. The change I want to make in the world, unfortunately, does not itself generate much money. But man oh man does it make change. It’s a hugely important change. And what I know about making this change is as good and as important as what you know about making money. So let’s divide and conquer – you keep on making money, I’ll keep on making change. And if you can lend some of your smarts to the change I’m trying to make, well that’s even better. But most of the time, we both keep on doing what we’re best at, and if we keep on working together the world will be a better place.”
One of the other points Dichter makes is that storytelling is more a skill than a talent and I think communicating the sentiment in an effective manner would take cultivated skills. There are already organizations using this approach except they are saying, you make money, you keep giving me the money and don’t pry too much about what I am doing with it.
It occurs to me that if you are approaching fund raising as evangelizing rather than as a necessary evil, you aren’t waiting for people to ask but rather reporting back before being asked. I am certainly in a better mood when I am writing to our donors about our successes than I am filling out the final report forms for a foundation. The format of the first allows you to tell people what events you perceive as progress. The format of the second forces you to try to recast your success according the the criteria by which the foundation is measuring progress. Something tends to get squeezed and lost when you try to stuff your excitement into the box provided.