Reflections on Generosity for Capital Campaigns

“Whoever practices charity and justice fills the world with loving kindness.”

This week, I’m reading quotes from Sukkah 49b about tzedakah.

Reflection questions:

• How are we giving donors that vision of repairing the world through their gifts?
• What are ways that we can practice tzedakah with donors?  That is, practicing justice, peace, and loving kindness with donors instead of just receiving donations from donors?

Reflection on the quote:

This week, I’ve been reading about tzedakah, the Jewish tradition of charity.  However, it’s meaning is so much broader than the traditional idea of giving a donation.  Within its meaning are also the concepts of justice and righteous behavior.  In the article I was reading, the author stated that it’s the way in which we repair world.  In addition, instead of giving charity to someone - the emphasis on to someone, it must be done with someone.  The emphasis is on with, meaning to come alongside, to journey with someone when giving a gift to them. 

In our work, we accept tzedakah, that is, the generosity of others.  And, through our work, we are partnering with these donors to repair the world and bring about justice and care for both the poor and the rich.  In doing so, we are filling the world with lovingkindness, peace, and confidence that the arc of history bends towards justice as Martin Luther King Jr. stated.

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"...that which is a hindrance is made a furtherance to an act; and that which is an obstacle on the road helps us on this road..."

This week, I am reading a quote from Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, written around 171 AD.

Reflection questions:

• Is there a response from a donor that you need to stop giving too much weight to and instead put it in its proper place, thank the donor, and continue with your good work?

Reflection on quote:

One of my clients got the letter this week. You know the letter.  You’ve sent out the year end appeal. You’ve started receiving donations in the mail. You feel very good about the generosity of the donors. Then you get the letter. It's the letter telling you that you should not wasted a stamp on an appeal letter, and that the donor wants you to remove them from the mailing list. Of course you check the database and you see that they've only given once as a very small donation. Despite all of the good work you’ve done, it's amazing how this one letter affects your day.

We don't know what is going on in the donor’s life who wrote us that letter or email. Perhaps they can only give a very small donation and they do truly feel as though you are wasting a portion of their small donation. Or perhaps they got bad news and our letter just came at the exact same time. No matter the reasoning, we have a choice in how we react. Will we give it more weight than needed, ruining our day?  Will we see it as a distraction? Will we make major changes in response to a minor criticism?  These are all possibilities. Or, we acknowledge the wisdom from the Meditations and we can put it in its proper place, thank the donor for their concern, and continue the work of giving opportunities for donors to give.



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"...When we have decided to accept, let us accept with cheerfulness, showing pleasure, and letting the giver see it, so that he or she may at once receive some return for their goodness..."

This week, I am reading a quote from On Benefits by Seneca the Younger, published in 59 AD.

Reflection Question:

• What is one thing you can do this week to let your donors know that you see their gifts and they are welcome to belong to your mission?

Reflection on Quote:

Seneca describes a number of attitudes that can accompany the receiving of a gift from cheerfulness to offense to slavish humility. He points out that when we receive gifts languidly, it leaves the giver in doubt.  It also tells the donor that they are not welcome to join us in the mission; that they don’t belong.  And, that is painful.

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"...When we have decided to accept, let us accept with cheerfulness, showing pleasure, and letting the giver see it, so that he or she may at once receive some return for their goodness..."

This week, I am reading a quote from On Benefits by Seneca the Younger, published in 59 AD.

Reflection Question:

• No matter the donor or the donor’s motivation, how are you and I receiving gifts? What is the attitude of our hearts?

Reflection on Quote:

When we look back over the last few months, what has been our attitude in accepting gifts? Seneca describes a number of attitudes that can accompany the receiving of a gift from cheerfulness to offense to slavish humility. Beyond the attitudes he describes, I would add one more. Busyness.  When we do not add enough margin to our days, especially during busy fundraising seasons, we can neglect saying thank you and thus give the appearance that the donations are not needed.  Or, we can instead take the time and aim to accept gifts with cheerfulness.

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"...A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed...."

This week, I’m reading a quote from the Jewish wisdom on generosity from Proverbs 11.

Reflection questions:

• As you wait for donors to respond to a campaign, have you given to the mission you serve?

• How are you leading this week in your daily life with the intention of generosity in your own life?

Reflection on Quote:

A part of any campaign is the waiting.  We wait for a donor to join us in that beautiful space called generosity.  In that space is both the donor and us, you and I. If we are asking donors to be generous,  what should we doing?  

As we wait for donors to join us in that beautiful space of generosity, our hearts must be transformed by generosity as well.  As a consultant, my work has been to teach nonprofits on how to encourage generosity from their donors.  Several years back, I had an epiphany.  I was asking others to be generous - even sacrificially generous, yet I had never stopped to reflect on my own generosity.  Now, it happened to be around tax time, so I took a look at past tax returns and those itemized charitable deductions.  And, honestly, I was a bit ashamed.  I myself wasn’t giving freely.  I was asking others to give freely, but I was unduly withholding.  From that year on, I have set a goal to give freely and there has been much joy as a result.   

When we give, we are also seeding generosity in our organization’s culture and into the staff around us.  We are showing our colleagues that we care about their work. That is an opportunity to refresh them. It shows confidence in the hard work of the staff and volunteers.  To the frontline and back-office staff, it shows that we are grateful for the daily and sometimes mundane routines of running the office that allows our mission to happen. To the program staff, it encourages them to continue into their work. When we give, we are less worried about asking.  As the quote stated, one person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but ends up impoverished.  When we give first, our fundraising campaigns become less about the ask and more about the opportunity for others to join in that beautiful space of generosity.

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"...For with wisdom cometh patience, And with patience cometh rest..."

This week, I am reading the poem The Hardest Time of All, by Sarah Doudney. Written in 1896.

Reflection Questions:

• Where are you waiting for some major change to occur as a result of your work?  Is it time to gain more wisdom or to be more patient or to stop and rest in that area?

• Will you take the time to document your hopes for change in the coming year and then schedule an email to send that reflection to yourself in a year as a way to see that those hardest times of waiting was when the change was actually occurring?

Reflection on the poem:

This week, I attended our statewide Association of Fundraising Professionals conference, just to sit in the audience and learn.  A recurring theme was perseverance in small daily tasks that will yield fruit.  Our work does take patience in order to see change. Whatever your faith tradition, let’s take a moment to reflect on wisdom, patience, and rest as it works itself out in faith. 

With wisdom comes patience and patience comes rest.  If we stop and reflect on the changes that have occurred in the last year, in those moments, those changes would have seemed minuscule filled with times of waiting.  Yet, after a year of those tasks - making calls, sending emails, writing thank you notes - I am confident that you can look back and see major changes just as the poem - we must wait for the blossoms to fall in order to gather the fruit. And now, the hardest time of all - or should I say, the hardest time in the next few months is to continue to actively wait for breakthroughs and major changes.  But, in wisdom, patience, perseverance, and rest, we see the real difference we are making.

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..."An association [nonprofit] is an educated and powerful body of citizens which cannot be twisted to any person's will or quietly trodden down,..."

This week, I’m reading selected quotes from Democracy in America by Alexis De Tocqueville, published in 1835. Note.  His use of the word association is our current word for nonprofit.

Reflection questions:

• Are you getting caught up how national events affect the nonprofit you serve?  Will you instead reflect on ways your nonprofit is improving your community through the power of association and democracy?

• How are you giving opportunities for donors to see that they are a part of that powerful body of citizens that work together to save common liberties?

Reflection on quote:

In the United States, we are in the middle of election season.  As nonprofit leaders, we can wonder and even worry about the effect the election will have on the missions we serve.  However, instead of getting caught up in that worry, we can look to the role of nonprofits in democracies and how generosity promotes democracy. 

Let’s consider these ideas that, according de Tocqueville, nonprofits have a vital role in maintaining democracy. Nonprofits through our missions allow citizens to act together to alleviate the challenges we see in our community.  Through the networks of nonprofits and citizens acting together, we bring arts and culture, preserve places for people to enjoy history, nature, and learning, help vulnerable individuals, families, children, and animals, protect the environment, and so much more.  We defend and civilize our communities.    

And, also according to his writing in 1835, generosity to nonprofits creates an educated and powerful body of citizens that saves common liberties. When donors give, they become more engaged in our missions and feel more responsible to see our missions succeed.  A colleague often states that nonprofit work is the most pure form of democracy; that is, people coming together in consensus for the common good of our missions.  When those with wealth, at any amount, choose not to keep their wealth and instead are generous, that wealth is combined with the knowledge of the common good of our missions and saves the common liberties to maintain civilization in our communities.  

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"...the potentially world-changing and life-giving power that may be present in or working through the goodness of the donors' hearts and souls; if only someone would acknowledge it, call it forth, and nurture it!"

This week, I am reading a quote from Growing Givers’ Hearts: Treating Fundraising as Ministry by Thomas Jeavons and Rebekah Burch Basinger. 2000 edition.

Reflection questions:

• Where are there areas that we are failing to recognize the world-changing and life-giving power that resides the donors’ hearts and souls?

• How are you giving space for donors  to share their desire to be world changing and life giving?

Reflection on quote:

As we prepare for year-end giving or any fundraising campaign, how we message matters.  Are we selling a transaction or inviting generosity?

This quote reminds me of a conservation nonprofit client and their experience with a donation.  The donor planned to give appreciated stock for their donation.  When the donor was told how to avoid capital gains tax, they refused and instead insisted on selling the stocks, paying the capital gains tax, and donating the proceeds. This donor cared more about the world-changing and life-giving power that was present in or working through the goodness of his heart and soul than the tax break.  When we consider our fundraising messages in our fundraising materials, we should avoid focusing on the tax deductions and other transactional benefits and instead we invite and nurture the generosity of donors who want to be a part of our missions.

To purchase this book:  Growing Givers’ Hearts: Treating Fundraising as Ministry by Thomas Jeavons and Rebekah Burch Basinger.

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“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in which case, you fail by default.”  JK Rowling

This week, I’m reading various quotes to reflect on how generosity covers our failures.

Reflection question:

Are we letting failure harden or shame us?  Or, are we letting generosity cover our failures with the desire to keep trying?   

Reflection on Quotes:

Last week, I talked about failure and how to view failure. All this week, I’ve been thinking about how donors view our failures. Although we can Google a bunch of quotes about people not wanting others to be successful or root for our failures, that is not how donors view failures in our nonprofit work.  Instead, because donors are investing in our work, they are cheering us on to move passed our failures.

When donors see that we are seeking to succeed in our work, they will see failures as a learning process to better serve our missions in the future.  What we do next matters. It’s easy to be ashamed or to let the failure harden us into never wanting to make a mistake again.  Especially when we respect the sacrificial giving leads some donors to give to our organizations.  

However, our donors have not called us to live cautiously, to feed half a child or protect half the land or play half the music.  No, their gifts cover our failures with a desire for us to keep trying, or as Brené Brown states, to keep daring greatly.

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To explore small town capital campaign coaching deeper and to schedule an free explore coaching call, visit ServingNonprofits.com.

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"...All that happens, happens right: you will find it so if you observe narrowly..."

This week, I am reading a quote from Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, written around 171 AD.

Reflection questions:

• When you have failed in your work recently, how are observing narrowly for the right things that came out of it?

• Are you seeking perfection or goodness in your fundraising activities?

Reflection on the quote:

In working with over 100 clients, it’s not surprising that I’m well-acquainted with failure as well. A donor event that no one shows up to. An email campaign that raises zero dollars. A year-end direct mail campaign that goes out in January. A fundraising event where no one gives.  As much as I want every campaign, event, fundraising activity to be successful, that’s not real life.  So how do we grapple with that. This week, I am reading a quote from Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, written around 171 AD.

All that happens, happens right.  Notice that Aurelius did nt say, all that happens, happens perfectly.  Or, successfully.  But, he says “right if you observe narrowly.” We can get stuck in embarrassment or paralysis.  We can fear that donors will stop giving to us because of our failure. Instead, a failure can help us have more honest interactions with donors. For instance, ask the donor help us understand the best way to give you the opportunity to donate.  Or, a failure can lead to the right conversations with the right donors.  For example, a smaller-than-hoped-for event can open up a more in-depth conversation that wouldn’t have been possible if the event was larger. Failures can lead to growth when we have the right attitude, which is the second half of the quote.  Let your aim be goodness in every action.  We don’t fail in fundraising because we want to fail.  But we will fail because failure is a part of life. So, we don’t aim for perfection or status.  We aim for goodness.  Goodness for the cause that we serve. And, remember, donors don’t give to us. They give to the cause through us.

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