Hi everyone, happy Spring in the Northern Hemisphere. This post may be short and incoherent, because I’m supposed to be wrapping up the manuscript of my book and sending it to my editor at Wiley. Due to the collapse of democracy and the rise of fascism, it must be changed a bit, including the title, which right now stands at “Burn It All Down and Rise from the Ashes: A Guide for Transforming the Nonprofit and Philanthropy Sector into a Badass Phoenix of Equity and Justice!” But I’m sure the publisher will demand a more boring and “marketable” title.
A few weeks ago, as the federal government launched the first phase of its war on DEI and on the nonprofit sector, I was on LinkedIn perusing the comments while eating a container of Ben and Jerry’s “Cherry Garcia” non-dairy ice cream, when one of those annoying AI questions popped up, where apparently, I was one of the experts invited to answer a question. The question was “You’re seeking to engage new major donors. How can you tailor your fundraising strategy to their preferences?”
72 answers were given by various fundraising experts, most of them advising nonprofits to cater to donors by doing things like:
- “personalize outreach with stories and opportunities to align with their passions,”
- “research their philanthropic interests and past giving patterns” so you can adjust your interactions, and
- “invite them to private events or behind-the-scenes tours to show how your cause aligns with their values.”
Only one person pushed back against the idea that nonprofits should “tailor” their strategies for donors or funders.
I took a big spoonful of creamy non-dairy frozen dessert and typed, “Tell them fascism is on the rise you’re busy fighting it and won’t have time for personalized thank-yous and interactions. Ask them if they’re interested in examining where their wealth comes from and if they’d like to help you change the tax code so the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes.”
My hastily written answer got 76 likes, which is not many, but is still higher than the next highest-liked answer, which got 11 likes and mentioned really listening to your donors and making the relationship one that benefits both parties.
It is not surprising, but it continues to be disappointing how entrenched this idea has been that fundraisers’ job is to cater to the whims and passions of donors. It furthers what I call the “retailification of nonprofit and philanthropy,” where our sector serves as a giant SkyMall catalog of causes, and nonprofit professionals are personal shoppers for the rich, with a few crumbs of attention tossed to the non-rich donors who give smaller amounts.
It’s so ingrained in us, thanks to decades of various (though mostly white) fundraising experts hammering home the message that donors’ interests, passions, and intent—even after they’re long dead—are the most important and sacred of fundraisers’ priorities. To the point where AI regurgitates this philosophy of “tailor your fundraising strategy to [donors’] preferences” and few people stop to say “Ew, what the #$%@ sort of shenanigans is this?!”
Four years ago I wrote “White supremacy and the problem with centering donors’ interests and emotions.” Things were horrific back then. Now they’re even worse. With everything burning down all around us, we need to double down on reexamining all the philosophies and practices we’ve taken as best practices and engage with donors differently. Here are some things to consider and act on:
Embrace our roles as experts in this work: This sort of “we are just vessels for our donors to achieve their goals in creating a better world” bullshit needs to stop. I’m serious, y’all. None of us go to our dentists and tell them what drills they should use, because most of us don’t have years of dental training (which disappoints our parents and relatives, who never let us forget, but that’s neither here nor there). Our donors may be nice people and should be treated with respect (when warranted), but they do not have the same level of training or expertise in this field. Stop letting them dictate our work.
Educate and guide donors: Again, as people with more experience and knowledge in the areas we’re working on, our role must involve educating donors. Not just on the issue areas that they care about, but on stuff they don’t currently care about but maybe with a little bit of information, they might care about it. We also need to educate them on how the sector works instead changing our behaviors. For instance, many donors are still ignorant as hell about overhead. With the ramped-up attacks on and misinformation about nonprofits, we’re going to need to do a lot more educating. Let’s start practicing now.
Be really honest about what’s going on: For decades we’ve been trained to treat donors like fragile baby birds, or maybe like those fancy French poodles with the fluffy haircuts: too delicate or refined to be bothered with difficult, grimy content. If we are going to be partners in protecting our communities and saving democracy, we need to be more honest with donors about things, including the crises our community, sector, and orgs are facing. I think most would appreciate it. They need to be in the loop so they can help, or at the very least so they don’t throw hissy fits over not getting a personalized thank-you note or tour or puppet show or whatever.
Focus on what’s important and get donors to do the same: We need to examine what is essential at this moment and the things we may not have time and energy for. I think not only would donors understand the pivot in how nonprofits engage with them, if communicated with honesty and authenticity, but welcome it. As a donor, I would appreciate getting a message from nonprofits I donate to telling me they’re cutting down on donor engagement activities so they can focus on services, participate in protests, file lawsuits, and otherwise fight fascism.
We are desperately trying to hold our communities together while at the same time trying to prevent the collapse of democracy. We cannot operate as if everything were normal, and this includes interactions with donors. We need a radical departure from the philosophies and practices we’ve been taught. The attacks on DEI, the defunding of critical services, and the rise of authoritarianism require us to act like agents of justice, not personal concierges for donors.
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Thank you to all my Patreon supporters for keeping these ramblings going and open to everyone.
