“Not you, me” fundraising

Two of my nephews are close-in-age brothers. That means they fought. A lot. As brothers do.

When they were little guys, maybe 4 and 5 (they’re adults now), the younger brother went through a stage where he’d taunt his brother by saying, Not you, me!

Meaning, I guess, “I’m better, it’s mine, you are less than me.”

He gets a pass for that because of his age.

A lot of fundraisers who should know better are practicing “not you, me” fundraising. And it does a whole lot more harm than Carlos’ childish taunt.

Let me show you an example that showed up in my news feed, a paid advertisement. It was from a nonprofit I’ve never heard of:

This is “not you, me” fundraising. Because it’s about the organization. It’s not about something inspiring and important that the donor can make possible.

The headline, to be fair, is donor-facing. But it’s utterly generic. Your donor can “make a difference today” by picking up litter, being kind to a dog, or being good at their job. They can also “make a difference” by doing something bad.

Effective fundraising is about doing specific things.

Unfortunately, nothing like that is found in the paragraph below the headline. The closest it comes to specific is “educational opportunities” (abstraction and/or jargon) for “children and youth across Central America.” Specific but very broad geographically and by age.

Is there a problem that needs to be solved? If so, it’s not mentioned here.

But the real “not you, me” is in all three sentences:

• “Your donation helps us…”
• “… donations are directed … to our programs.”
• “You support is critical … to our mission.”

The only reason a donor has for giving is to help the organization do something or other having other having to do with education in Central America.

It’s no doubt good work. It probably solves a problem. It likely makes the world a better place in some way.

But this ad doesn’t tell potential donors any of that.

“Not you, me” fundraising isn’t fundraising at all.

Fundraising that brings in people (and their donations) has these three elements:

1. A problem donors care about and understand.
2. A believable solution to that problem that the donor can meaningfully activate.
3. An invitation to do so.

That’s not easy.

But if you don’t do that, you’re wasting your time and money.