A ten-week series on things you should know about fundraising.
Giving is good for donors.
The research is clear. Giving charitable gifts is good for you. It feels good because it stimulates pleasure chemicals in the brain. It boosts self-esteem and confidence. It supports a general sense of happiness, improves mental and physical health. It even has positive financial outcomes for donors: Research finds that charitable giving has a return on investment of $3.75 to $1.
If you think your fundraising is taking something away from them, you’re missing one of the coolest things about it. Giving is a positive experience. They give because they want to and because it feels good and makes their lives better.
“Making donors’ lives better” is probably not why your organization exists. That would be weird. But if you’re raising funds from donors, you are helping make donors’ lives better.
It just happens. The better your fundraising, the more it happens.
The reason I consider it a Fundraising Commandment is this: If you are conscious of the positive impact giving has on your donors, you will do better work.
A lot of fundraising is created by people who feel guilty about their work. They think they’re extracting something from donors. Getting away with something that’s barely ethical. Manipulating them.
They work with their fingers crossed. Their teeth gritted. A fake smile trying to hide their bad feelings.
Think how pinched and painful that kind of fundraising must be. Where do they find the emotional core of their message? How to they encourage the joy?
They don’t. They fake it.
It’s no coincidence that “fundraising is bad” people are really bad at thanking donors. Thanking must feel like an intolerable waste to them.
But if you get it, if you embrace the truth about giving, you are free to do the best possible work.
And make the world a better place in two distinct ways: Your stated mission, and your impact on donors.
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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