Here’s something good your fundraising does other than raise funds: It connects people who need connection.
The Cause & Effect blog, noting a study on loneliness, pointed this out recently, at Fundraisers — your caring stewardship might ease a donor’s loneliness.
It’s true: Many people are lonely. Having less human contact than they want or need. It’s typically more common for older people — that is, your donors.
When you make contact with them, it may be very welcome to them. That’s why they pay attention to our messages in ways that sometimes puzzle us.
… it adds an importance to caring for our donors beyond the potential return in gifts to our organizations. It should make you pause and think again about dashing off that aseptic thank you letter — bereft of emotion or personal connection.
People I know who have a lot of contact with donors agree: Many donors love the contact. All of it.
It’s easy for those of us wrapped up in busy careers and life stages that seem to give us no time along to ignore the reality of loneliness. But believe it or not, if you’re a fundraiser, you’re a loneliness fighter.
Another reason to be proud you’re a fundraiser.
Jeff Brooks has been serving the nonprofit community for more than 35 years and blogging about it since 2005. He considers fundraising the most noble of pursuits and hopes you’ll join him in that opinion. You can reach him at jeff [at] jeff-brooks [dot] com.
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