Reflections on Generosity for Capital Campaigns

"Giving brings happiness in every state of its expression..."

This week, I’m reading 3 quotes from the Buddha. 

Reflection questions:

• If you have a task of asking a donor for a gift this week, what is your mindset going into the ask?  A necessary task?  Or, a joyous opportunity for the donor to join in the power of giving?

• If you have a task of stewarding a donor this week, what is your mindset?  Is something to get off of your to-do list?  Or, do you see the task as planting a seed filled with joy for the donor to consider a life of service and compassion?

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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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"...the testimony of those who have shifted in their minds, spirits, and emotions from an imagined world of scarcity and insecurity to one of abundance, blessing, sufficiency, and overflow is almost always the same: it is liberating...."

This week, I’m reading a quote from The Paradox of Generosity by Christian Smith and Hilary Davidson. 2014 edition.

Reflection questions: 

• As you reflect on some of the donors to the organization you serve, how have you seen a transformation from scarcity to abundance?

• What about you and I? Are we seeing that transformation from scarcity to abundance in our lives?

To purchase this book: The Paradox of Generosity by Christian Smith and Hilary Davidson.

Copyright: Oxford University Press 2014. Reproduced with permission of the Licensor through PLSclear.

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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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"Books which it would have been impossible for me to obtain elsewhere were, by his wise generosity, placed within my reach; and to him I owe a taste for literature which I would not exchange for all the millions that were ever amassed by man..."

This week, I’m quoting a story from the Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie. Published in 1920.

Reflection questions:

• When was the last time we asked our most committed donors about their story for giving to the cause we serve?

• When your fundraising tasks seem overwhelming, imagine what impact today’s generosity by donors and volunteers will have on the future.

To read this book: Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie

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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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"An association is an educated and powerful body of citizens which cannot be twisted to any person's will or quietly trodden down, and by defending its private interests against the encroachments of power, it saves the common liberties....."

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:

• Many individuals with the means to donate experience giving as a transaction. How will you bring the mindset that you are giving back to the donor the tremendous value of the knowledge of the common good your mission to bringing to the community?

• How will you consider the ways in which generosity to the cause you serve promotes democracy and saves common liberties?

To read this book: Democracy in America by Alexis De Tocqueville.

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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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"O let us live in joy, although having nothing! In joy let us live like spirits of light!..,"

This week, I’m reading a quote from the Dhammapada, written down in the 1st century BC.

Reflection questions:

• When was the last time you stepped back to view the greater horizon of the mission you serve?  Is it time to step back again and live in the love, health, peace, and joy to see what you get to fundraise for?

• Think now of donors, who are the donors that you can share that joy of living in the greater horizon of the mission? Not to cultivate, ask, or steward, but to simply have a conversation of joy with them.  Who are the donors coming to mind now?

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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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"Helping a person in need is good in itself.  But the degree of goodness is hugely affected by the attitude with which it is done...."

This week, I’m reading a quote from John Chrysostom from the 400 A.D.s.

Reflection questions:

• When was there a time when you were overwhelmed with the generosity of others because their generosity to you was given with such a spirit of joy that you received the generosity with pleasure?

• Is there an area of your fundraising work that you would like to bring in that same spirit of joy?  How will you do so this week?

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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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"They would all therefore find themselves helpless if they did not learn to help each other voluntarily.  With associations, feelings and ideas are renewed, the heart enlarged, and the understanding developed only by the reciprocal action of people one upon another...."

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:

• How are we sharing the vision of the causes we serve?  In sharing our visions, are we welcoming our communities to unite with us and have their hearts enlarged?

• How are we showing donors the collective impact we have together by combining our efforts?

To read this book: Democracy in America by Alexis De Tocqueville.

This work has entered the public domain.

What do you think? Send me a text.

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

Music credit: Woeisuhmebop

"These are among the poorest and most destitute people you will ever meet. Never take away the right of another person to be generous....”

This week, I’m reading a story from Imagining Abundance. Fundraising, Philanthropy, and A Spiritual Call to Service by Kerry Alys Robinson. 2014 edition.

Reflection question:

• While we never want our clients to feel as if they owe the nonprofit for the services they receive, how are we giving our clients and, especially former clients, the opportunity to be generous?

To purchase this book:  Imagining Abundance. Fundraising, Philanthropy, and A Spiritual Call to Service by Kerry Alys Robinson

Copyright permissions granted for use of this quote.

What do you think? Send me a text.

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

Music credit: Woeisuhmebop

"... donors see 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 in the donors’ hearts and souls?

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

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

Copyright permissions granted for use of this quote.

What do you think? Send me a text.

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

Music credit: Woeisuhmebop

"Donors, grantees, and beneficiaries need each other to bring something beautiful and life-giving to fruition. It is a collaboration borne of deep desire to find meaning, to be a blessing, to be part of something successful and consequential, and to heal the sorrows of life....”

This week I am reading two quotes from Imagining Abundance. Fundraising, Philanthropy, and A Spiritual Call to Service. Kerry Alys Robinson. 2014.

The quote begins. “What we realized was that we were unwittingly viewing donors as objects to try to get as much money from as quickly and painlessly as possible, rather than as subjects in their own right. Donor prospects are not objects; they are subjects, and like all of us, they want to contribute to something meaningful and life-giving and successful. Like us, they too search for meaning, have fears and hopes, desires and regrets, and beliefs that should be acknowledged and reverenced.”

“When we enter into sacred discussion with donors or grantees or beneficiaries of a ministry, vulnerability is established. Donors, grantees, and beneficiaries need each other to bring something beautiful and life-giving to fruition. It is a collaboration borne of deep desire to find meaning, to be a blessing, to be part of something successful and consequential, and to heal the sorrows of life.” 

End quote.

Let’s reflect on these questions this week:


In thinking about those who support our missions, especially those areas that deal with human tragedies, How are we helping to heal the sorrows of life for, through, and with our donors?

How do we give space for donors to redeem their tragedies through generosity?

To purchase this book:  Imagining Abundance. Fundraising, Philanthropy, and A Spiritual Call to Service.

Permissions granted for use of this quote.

What do you think? Send me a text.

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

Music credit: Woeisuhmebop