Fundraising And Development

Fundraising And Development

Sep 19, 2023 | Fundraising

Fundraising is generally viewed as ‘asking for money’. This is essentially true. Whether you have been asked to support the local Little League baseball team or received a printed mailer that asked for your support to build a homeless shelter, you have likely been the recipient of a fundraising activity.

Fundraising can take place in many forms, some of which include face-to-face interactions, e-blasts, advertising campaigns (print and digital), stories in the media, social media campaigns, and formal written requests (grants) for support. The particular method of an ask is also dependent on the nature of the campaign — capital, program, or short versus long-term need(s).

‘Asking for the money’, however, is just one step within an intentional process at the organizational level. Whereas many community fundraising initiatives begin and end with an ask, organizations view fundraising differently. For organizations that have identified fundraising as a means to address community needs and/or support aspects of their services for which there are inadequate finances, fundraising is (or should be) followed by what is known as development.

Broadly defined, development is the careful nurturing and building of relationships over time between organizations and donors/philanthropists. In a sense, development could be seen as separate from fundraising. Effective development results in meaningful relationships that could be characterized as friendships.

Such relationships/friendships are based on trust, understanding, and shared values that enhance the experience of giving from the perspective of the donor/philanthropist. Development is thus an activity that takes place both before, during and after ‘the ask’ and continues at some level regardless of whether any money has actually been raised.

Effective development, then, helps to create, promote, and maintain a culture of philanthropy that becomes embedded within organizations and is not entirely dependent on individual fundraisers, but codified activities and processes.

Self-Reflection in Marketing

Self-Reflection in Marketing

Aug 20, 2023 | Marketing

Marketing is a business domain not only for promoting brands, products, and services but also as a platform for organizational self-reflection, engaging the entire staff in the process.

Why the need for self-reflection? Frankly, Western society shies away in general from genuine self-reflection, which I contend cannot be captured in a social media self-post curated in a local Starbucks. Maybe it can, of course, but let’s assume it cannot happen there.

The kind of self-reflection to which I am referring–at either the personal or organizational level–begins with simple questions, such as, “Why are we doing this?” Honestly, I have sat in many conference calls during which it occurred to me that several key elements were not clear to me (and obviously to others, too).

Let me use a specific example. Staff have developed what they believe is an incredible program, priced it according to what they feel is its value, and now present it to the marketing “guy” or “gal” to promote it.

The incredible part of this true story is that the marketing person was never consulted during program development or in any discussions related to its hypothetical value. Yes, I said “hypothetical,” because “value” is not something that exists “out there” in space and time, independent of our perceptions, preconceived notions, or cultural framework.

In many cases, value is quite arbitrary. Why can one museum charge $20 admission, whereas a seemingly similar institution cannot move anyone’s proverbial needle at half that price? Perception is reality.

While I am not a big fan of the word, “should,” I believe it applies here in that marketing should never be the final step in any process where revenue is concerned. When done well and from a systems perspective, marketing can invite deep self-reflection BEFORE (as opposed to after) money and time are spent.

Best Practices in Organizations

Best Practices in Organizations

Jul 16, 2023 | Strategy

Recently, I had a “conversation” with an individual about next steps related to further developing a nonprofit board. Excited about some of my recent research that touches on new ways to conceptualize the role of nonprofit board development, I indicated that perhaps we could consider new ideas.

I am not sure what I expected to receive for a response, but I was met with something to the effect that he wanted to move toward “best practices.” In that moment, I realized that not only was he not interested in what I had to say, but that he had employed absolute thinking.

Absolute thinking is a way to present an idea as incontrovertible, unassailable, and universally correct. How was I to respond to his statement of “best practices?” He left no room for dialogue or discussion. Was I to offer up “okay practices” or “less than practices?”

If you manage people or serve on a nonprofit board, I invite you to consider how you you think you know what you know. If you are not sure, that is perfectly okay. If your response is that your opinion is based in science or research, that is also perfectly acceptable.

My invitation, then, is for you to go farther in your inquiry. What has worked based on your experience? What do those around you feel or think about the subject? When developing an organization, there are extraordinary opportunities for self-reflection and process-building.

When anyone appeals to the somewhat amorphous and nebulously defined “best practices,” what they are subtly communicating is that they have no interest in any sort of dialogue within which new understandings may be co-created among diverse stakeholders.

After all, does anyone knowingly employ “best practices?” Ostensibly, the entire world is predicated on “best practices,” but for whom? Who benefits from these so-called best practices?

Heinz von Foerster developed something known in cybernetic thinking circles as the Ethical Imperative: “Act always so as to increase the total number of choices.” Are you increasing choices at your organization? For whom?

Not surprisingly, the gentleman I referenced at the beginning of this file never spoke to me again about nonprofit board development. The last I heard, he is developing various subcommittees and an overall board structure “by the book.” I wonder who wrote that book?

Great Pains

Great Pains

May 1, 2023 | Spoken Poetry

Great Pains

by Robert Levey

Great pains
Love is not a place,
or strategy,
direction,
or inflection
of voice,
or choice,
thing,
way,
or dream,
even though
it may seem
like one
to me,
a man
lost in his own sea
and multiple versions of ‘me’,
each one a fortress
designed to shut out the mystery
of self
and the feelings in my head,
as I struggle to remember
what I meant
when I said
my soul had limits,
and boundaries,
and things no one could understand.
———–
As I bid adieu
to the many versions of you
who
were me,
I wonder at your place
in my story,
your history in my space,
as I age in place
without an observable trace
of the pain I experienced
and caused,
the scars
inside my heart
that will not heal,
because some questions go unanswered
and perhaps are not real.
———–
In a world full of 6-figure dreams,
it seems
like the cost of what I gain
causes too much pain
inside my heart
and the nature of my soul
tucked away inside
the forest that is childhood,
sprawling,
crawling
with wonder
and hope and sounds
within smells inside memories
caressed by small hands
that held nothing
except everything
I needed in moments
framed within a boundless imagination
near streams
and stones
that knew
and know
that the nature of myself
is but a ripple in a sea
that is and is not me,
and so we
undulate together
in a galaxy
far, far away
on a summer day,
dreaming of childhood’s end
and what’s around the bend,
future and past
nearly touching a charcoal sky,
stars twinkling,
I ask why,
but is that the question
I need answered before I die?
———–
I guess the answer depends
on whether there is a distinction
between the means and ends
and how I tell my story
and whether I frame myself as a hero
or simply a man
without any answer
or plan.
The universe is vast,
but is it grand?
Is there land
beyond the sea
that is me?
Is there a hard edge to finity,
or might I slip through
my own reverie
to discover I am
but one blade of prairie grass
swaying in the great pains of life…

Small Hands

Small Hands

Apr 4, 2023 | Spoken Poetry

Small Hands

by Robert Levey

The past
is both place and theory,
seems dreary, though,
to wallow in my history
and lose the mystery
if I hold on to my version of self
and not embrace
the softness
within my heart
and the feelings
that flow like a river
that connects
to earth and her heart
within mine.

I choose
to lose my self
in this natural flow,
renounce what I said I once knew
and know,
let go
of my notions
and other elixirs and potions
centered on logic,
right and wrong.

I believe there is a song
in my heart
and in hers
with a melody so refined
that it feels like cool air
on Saturday afternoons
near bodies of water that sway
when hands are held,
hearts meld
into one
underneath clouds
and sun.

It is not often
that a string in my heart has been strum,
but when it happens,
I feel numb
in my brain
and in response to things
that attempt to explain
that I am not of this earth
and that my body is not real.

While here,
I choose to face fear
and listen
to the wisdom of the river
and its flow
and the sounds that smell
like memories
floating through space time
inside my words
on the wings of birds
perched inside dreams
and small hands
that hold my heart.