« Amaze your donors and they'll make it worth your trouble | Main | How to avoid creating a boring blog »

Are your donors an "uncontacted tribe"?

Tribe
Do you see your donors as a kind of "uncontacted tribe"? If you do, you're not alone.

Their lives are utterly strange to us. Their habits and culture are utterly mysterious. We can only vaguely guess how they think.

They're a strange combination of dangerous and fragile ...

When they see us spying into their world, they gesture threateningly and futilely try to shoot us down. If we went among them, they'd doubtless kill us. On the other hand, we're afraid we could destroy them if we accidentally introduce a disease or cultural artifact that they can't handle.

So we keep our distance. We study them as well as we can without endangering ourselves or them. We make our best guesses based on blurry photos and lame focus groups.

If you want better fundraising results, you can't think of donors this way.

The successful fundraiser doesn't buzz the donors' village in a helicopter. He lives in the village. Donors are his friends, his cousins, his elders, his mentors.

While he may study them, they're not just an academic subject to him. They're his source of wisdom, inspiration, and truth.

A real fundraiser is also a donor. Not a geek in a helicopter.


Technorati Tags: ,

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83451b8ab69e200e554119c778834

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Are your donors an "uncontacted tribe"?:

Comments

Great post! I think many times, nonprofit staff, not just fundraisers, approach donors with the idea that they live in a different world and can't relate. You are exactly right!

Haha! I love this analogy! It can be so true. One of the ways we combat this 'uncontacted tribe' syndrome is by stamping 'draft' on our presentation tools that we take on visits with our investors/donors. We ask for input and contribution, and this collaboration helps bridge the 'culture gap' between 'us' and 'them'.(to continue the metaphor). Our president just recently wrote a post about using 'drafts'. http://www.forimpact.org/2008/07/make_everything_a_draft.php

The comments to this entry are closed.


If you're serious about raising money from donors, you need to get serious about donors. More than ever before, donors are insisting that you share power with them, not treating them like passive ATMs. This blog is about the ways you can do that -- and the rewards that await you and your donors when you do.

Jeff Brooks, creative director at Merkle, has been serving the nonprofit community for nearly 20 years. He wants to be a curmudgeon when he grows up, and considers blogging great training. You can reach him at
<jbrooks [at] merkleinc [dot] com.More
  See this blog's policies.
A great partner for the nonprofit that wants to get donor-powered and grow revenue like crazy!
Subscribe by e-mail

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner


AddThis Feed Button

Add to Technorati Favorites