No matter which side of the health care debate you fall it was obvious that people in both camps were feeling desperate to have their voice heard.
The generation of today is drawn to technology like a mosquito is to a bug zapper! Be it Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube your proud teen is happy to develop carpal tunnel syndrome by achieving new heights in daily texting a minimum of twenty minutes per day. People are buzzing like bees with no unified direction or focus in this grand “social networking” experiment that is tantamount to nothing more than glorified self absorption.
This fevered pitch cannot be maintained forever yet it is not surprising that this frustration is easily carried over to how many nonprofits feel trying to rise above everyday life’s noise to reach their respective donor.
It is hard to get a donor’s attention especially if they are worried about being able to keep their job in this economic slow down or because they are constantly answering their BlackBerry.
Regardless, while nonprofits bemoan this fact it is also quite ironic that nonprofits themselves often times forget that part of their responsibility to the donor is to also listen!
When was the last time you let your donor speak?
I’m not talking about asking them to fill out a survey or questionnaire to see if they think it is a good time for you to raise money for your upcoming capital campaign. What I am talking about is really focusing “one on one” to try to discern how the donor feels about your organization and what you are doing.
We all need to be reminded at times that we are given two ears and only one mouth for a reason!
So, as frustrated as you might feel, realize in this age of technology with all the applications and madness allowing the individual to say whatever they want. More than just a few of your donors might seem a little frustrated because they feel like for whatever reason real or imagined their voice is not being heard or enough attention has not been given to them.
Only you can change the outcome of this scenario. The question remains, will you act on what you have heard or just ignore it like the rest?
Showing posts with label donor burnout. Show all posts
Showing posts with label donor burnout. Show all posts
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
The Story of Generous Joe
As strange as it might sound Generous Joe is really concerned and confused about what he should do with all the money he has made and inherited. He has amassed quite a sum and he is not getting any younger. As the old saying goes: “You can’t take it with you!” Yet, despite what some might think, Joe has yet to see a hearse pulling a U-haul.
After all the struggles of life it just doesn’t make sense that in making your final plans on how to settle your estate it should be this hard! All the professional advice and legal loop holes trying to keep that distant relative Uncle Sam out of the picture still has left Joe wondering what he should leave his friends, family members and even to some of the nonprofits he has supported over the years.
Joe is one of those guys driven by a combination of logic and deep feelings. He is a softy at heart and is generous with the money to a fault. However, he tends to look at the pattern of others behavior when making smaller gifts and consciously judges not only the reaction of how the money is accepted and appreciated but also what choices are made with that money when it is actually spent.
Regardless of the circumstances when it comes to Joe helping someone the last question in his mind always defaults to: Am I really helping this person or am I just being a facilitator of bad judgment? While this might appear harsh to some that don’t know Joe he would assure you that this is based on his real life examples that he can point to over and over again.
He knows more than most that many people live their life by crisis and honestly hope that their “crisis of the moment” will also becomes yours as well. Especially if you are someone that is willing to help!
For Generous Joe this often times surfaces as a person asking for money to help pay a bill or get them out of a jam that they worked themselves into. Joe realizes everyone needs help at some point but for others it is more of a lifestyle choice rather than a tragic unexpected event.
When a crisis occurs close friends and/or family members are generally open to pleas for help and for the most part honestly don’t mind helping. However, while people like to think in their mind they can give a gift that comes with no strings attached, the reality is everyone has a tendency to closely view the future actions of these individuals because when we give money to someone we are making an investment in that person. Naturally we want to feel that our choice was a good one.
Unfortunately for Generous Joe he finds himself being disappointed again and again because it seems that the pattern of behavior that got the person in trouble in the first place hasn’t changed. Nor will it change, unless the person wants to or is forced to change.
Example: Joe has a friend named Vicky and he hated to see her struggling and constantly being so stressed out. He wanted to help and saw Vicky was always in a constant crisis and never had enough money to pay her bills. She owed a ton of money on her credit card bill, her car insurance was due, she had not paid her property taxes for several years on the trailer her parents had given her and her phone was disconnected again. She had borrowed all the money she could from her parents and they could not help anymore. She had been out of work for two weeks before finding another job but her world seemed to be collapsing around her, and she was constantly crying and depressed. Joe sat down with Vicky to assess her situation and added up all her outstanding bills and wrote checks to everyone she owed to wipe out all her debt. Within a year she was back in the same situation! How could this be?
Vicky’s freedom was short lived because she had never lived without debt and no one in her family had ever been debt free. Being out of debt had no meaning or value to her and she always had a wish list in her mind. Shopping was not based on her need but on her wants and she wanted it all! Her only concern was how much was the monthly payment not what it actually cost. Since Joe took away all her payments she was free to start over. Most are not as lucky as Vicky to have someone willing to step in and be that generous. Yet, unfortunately this story has repeated itself over and over again for Joe to the point where he no longer feels as compassionate as he once did.
For Joe family is important and he has plenty of nieces and nephews he could shower with wealth but he can’t help but wonder will that just poison them in the long run. Being spoiled is one thing but being out of control is another.
Finally Generous Joe enjoys being involved in the community with various nonprofit organizations. Last year Joe gave away thousands of dollars to charity but this too felt hollow because none of the groups he supports go much further than to send a receipt and sometimes that doesn’t even happen.
It is easy to see how Generous Joe can get jaded yet for whatever reason he hasn’t given up quite yet.
To date Joe has given away over seven hundred and eighty thousand dollars with planned gifts of over a million dollars. Maybe one day soon Joe will find the answer he is looking for, but until then, it wouldn’t hurt for you to look over your donor list to see if you can find your own Generous Joe and make sure he or she feels appreciated.
After all the struggles of life it just doesn’t make sense that in making your final plans on how to settle your estate it should be this hard! All the professional advice and legal loop holes trying to keep that distant relative Uncle Sam out of the picture still has left Joe wondering what he should leave his friends, family members and even to some of the nonprofits he has supported over the years.
Joe is one of those guys driven by a combination of logic and deep feelings. He is a softy at heart and is generous with the money to a fault. However, he tends to look at the pattern of others behavior when making smaller gifts and consciously judges not only the reaction of how the money is accepted and appreciated but also what choices are made with that money when it is actually spent.
Regardless of the circumstances when it comes to Joe helping someone the last question in his mind always defaults to: Am I really helping this person or am I just being a facilitator of bad judgment? While this might appear harsh to some that don’t know Joe he would assure you that this is based on his real life examples that he can point to over and over again.
He knows more than most that many people live their life by crisis and honestly hope that their “crisis of the moment” will also becomes yours as well. Especially if you are someone that is willing to help!
For Generous Joe this often times surfaces as a person asking for money to help pay a bill or get them out of a jam that they worked themselves into. Joe realizes everyone needs help at some point but for others it is more of a lifestyle choice rather than a tragic unexpected event.
When a crisis occurs close friends and/or family members are generally open to pleas for help and for the most part honestly don’t mind helping. However, while people like to think in their mind they can give a gift that comes with no strings attached, the reality is everyone has a tendency to closely view the future actions of these individuals because when we give money to someone we are making an investment in that person. Naturally we want to feel that our choice was a good one.
Unfortunately for Generous Joe he finds himself being disappointed again and again because it seems that the pattern of behavior that got the person in trouble in the first place hasn’t changed. Nor will it change, unless the person wants to or is forced to change.
Example: Joe has a friend named Vicky and he hated to see her struggling and constantly being so stressed out. He wanted to help and saw Vicky was always in a constant crisis and never had enough money to pay her bills. She owed a ton of money on her credit card bill, her car insurance was due, she had not paid her property taxes for several years on the trailer her parents had given her and her phone was disconnected again. She had borrowed all the money she could from her parents and they could not help anymore. She had been out of work for two weeks before finding another job but her world seemed to be collapsing around her, and she was constantly crying and depressed. Joe sat down with Vicky to assess her situation and added up all her outstanding bills and wrote checks to everyone she owed to wipe out all her debt. Within a year she was back in the same situation! How could this be?
Vicky’s freedom was short lived because she had never lived without debt and no one in her family had ever been debt free. Being out of debt had no meaning or value to her and she always had a wish list in her mind. Shopping was not based on her need but on her wants and she wanted it all! Her only concern was how much was the monthly payment not what it actually cost. Since Joe took away all her payments she was free to start over. Most are not as lucky as Vicky to have someone willing to step in and be that generous. Yet, unfortunately this story has repeated itself over and over again for Joe to the point where he no longer feels as compassionate as he once did.
For Joe family is important and he has plenty of nieces and nephews he could shower with wealth but he can’t help but wonder will that just poison them in the long run. Being spoiled is one thing but being out of control is another.
Finally Generous Joe enjoys being involved in the community with various nonprofit organizations. Last year Joe gave away thousands of dollars to charity but this too felt hollow because none of the groups he supports go much further than to send a receipt and sometimes that doesn’t even happen.
It is easy to see how Generous Joe can get jaded yet for whatever reason he hasn’t given up quite yet.
To date Joe has given away over seven hundred and eighty thousand dollars with planned gifts of over a million dollars. Maybe one day soon Joe will find the answer he is looking for, but until then, it wouldn’t hurt for you to look over your donor list to see if you can find your own Generous Joe and make sure he or she feels appreciated.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Nonprofit Donor Burnout
More than likely you have read quite a bit about burnout when it comes to employees or staff of non profits. Rarely, however, do you hear about the flip side of the coin and hear someone discuss donor burnout.
As a donor to many different non profits over the years I can attest to the fact that there is a real frustration with how a non profit handles their end of the agreement.
Supporting a nonprofit as a donor is a very serious commitment I do not take lightly. I have to be sure that what the nonprofit stands for is something I can be fully committed to.
If I take the next step and join a board of directors then I am literally giving a piece of myself away. While this might seem to some as being melodramatic I can assure you that my wife of twenty-three years views this quite different! Whatever I give away of myself to supporting a non profit leaves less time and quite frankly energy for her. This is a big deal!
My gift and I do see what I give as a gift, goes far beyond just my time, my energy, my talent and what most nonprofits seem to be fixated on i.e. money. It is actually something deeper and more serious and for me part of my soul. How can you quantify the worth of self someone gives to your organization?
Unfortunately, few nonprofits I have run across have ever really comprehended this level of giving or found the way to respond to where I believe that they “got it.” So I seemed destine to repeat the same old cycle:
First I find a nonprofit I think is doing good work and get excited about what they are doing and support their cause. I might attend an event or give a donation.
Second, I learn more about what the organization does and get closer to the executive director and/or staff. I might find myself helping more by donating money or sometimes I find it more rewarding to meeting a specific need of the organization.
Eventually my level of giving and interest is noticed by others and at some point I might be asked to consider being on the board. This is the critical point! The older I get the more picky I have become and quite frankly more guarded, because I know if I join a board I will consider myself being all in.
If I join I quickly learn the good, the bad and the ugly about the organization. Sometimes this in and of itself is a huge disappointment. If however there are no hidden land mines then I quickly adjust to learning more about the organization and I gage the commitment levels of others on the board while learning about the excitement and energy level of the staff running the programs.
Many times after giving lots of time and energy and money I have found that the executive director and staff begin to take for granted past donations and get comfortable being the recipients of a generous nature and just expect it to continue forever regardless of their performance or outcomes. A disconnect begins slowly. There is not the level of excitement. Everyone still knows the reason they are there is to help the cause but at this point I generally hit a wall. I don’t see others around me willing to push as hard as I am or I begin to feel like my time is just being wasted. Staff slows down and only wants to push so far. The reason is that since they are working with an all volunteer board they do not want to have to do most of the work if the volunteer board stops pushing.
At this point if I am still on the board I will rotate off and normally my giving level drops. I also have a tendency to be reflective in nature. While I am not totally second guessing my judgment I do tend to mull over if the donations I’ve given in the past and generally draw a conclusion in my own mind if it was all worth it.
I wish I could end saying I felt good after all this but honestly answer is that of feeling more confused at times than being reassured that my personal commitment was met with an equal level of acceptance. Strange isn’t it?
As a donor to many different non profits over the years I can attest to the fact that there is a real frustration with how a non profit handles their end of the agreement.
Supporting a nonprofit as a donor is a very serious commitment I do not take lightly. I have to be sure that what the nonprofit stands for is something I can be fully committed to.
If I take the next step and join a board of directors then I am literally giving a piece of myself away. While this might seem to some as being melodramatic I can assure you that my wife of twenty-three years views this quite different! Whatever I give away of myself to supporting a non profit leaves less time and quite frankly energy for her. This is a big deal!
My gift and I do see what I give as a gift, goes far beyond just my time, my energy, my talent and what most nonprofits seem to be fixated on i.e. money. It is actually something deeper and more serious and for me part of my soul. How can you quantify the worth of self someone gives to your organization?
Unfortunately, few nonprofits I have run across have ever really comprehended this level of giving or found the way to respond to where I believe that they “got it.” So I seemed destine to repeat the same old cycle:
First I find a nonprofit I think is doing good work and get excited about what they are doing and support their cause. I might attend an event or give a donation.
Second, I learn more about what the organization does and get closer to the executive director and/or staff. I might find myself helping more by donating money or sometimes I find it more rewarding to meeting a specific need of the organization.
Eventually my level of giving and interest is noticed by others and at some point I might be asked to consider being on the board. This is the critical point! The older I get the more picky I have become and quite frankly more guarded, because I know if I join a board I will consider myself being all in.
If I join I quickly learn the good, the bad and the ugly about the organization. Sometimes this in and of itself is a huge disappointment. If however there are no hidden land mines then I quickly adjust to learning more about the organization and I gage the commitment levels of others on the board while learning about the excitement and energy level of the staff running the programs.
Many times after giving lots of time and energy and money I have found that the executive director and staff begin to take for granted past donations and get comfortable being the recipients of a generous nature and just expect it to continue forever regardless of their performance or outcomes. A disconnect begins slowly. There is not the level of excitement. Everyone still knows the reason they are there is to help the cause but at this point I generally hit a wall. I don’t see others around me willing to push as hard as I am or I begin to feel like my time is just being wasted. Staff slows down and only wants to push so far. The reason is that since they are working with an all volunteer board they do not want to have to do most of the work if the volunteer board stops pushing.
At this point if I am still on the board I will rotate off and normally my giving level drops. I also have a tendency to be reflective in nature. While I am not totally second guessing my judgment I do tend to mull over if the donations I’ve given in the past and generally draw a conclusion in my own mind if it was all worth it.
I wish I could end saying I felt good after all this but honestly answer is that of feeling more confused at times than being reassured that my personal commitment was met with an equal level of acceptance. Strange isn’t it?
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