One of the ways I know I’m reading a really good book is not just if it causes me to think but if it causes me pain. Causes me to reflect and perhaps rip up my life a bit.
Adam Grant’s book Give and Take is still one of the best books ever written on the alchemy and arithmetic of networking I’ve ever read. His latest book Think Again : The power of knowing what you don’t know is the perfect book written in the pandemic to help us challenge not just our assumptions but for many of us in our sector, the very roots of where fundraising meets generosity and social-good.
One of the concepts I’ve been reflecting on (see : cringe) is my outright negativity towards special events. As a speaker and fundraiser I’ve been giving them a hard time for years. And I still think that they are the fundraising default for too many charities big and small, board members and charity executives. I still think that the transactional nature and poor strategy using volunteers and in-kind donations to subsidize the net revenue is a fundraising crime. But in rethinking and in discussion with peers, I’ve come to unpack three themes that I hope are of value to sector peers and charity leaders:
We need them to build back better
I’m not even talking about fundraising here. I’m blessed to have a job that takes me all across Canada, increasingly these past few years into rural communities beyond the professional paywalls of associations into the small highly-connected communities of this great nation. I see how small business and local donors have sustained our sector with their volunteerism, love and money.
When we talk about building back better, events are going to be the way that we reboot the engine of our economy. Charity sector events bring revenue to banquet halls, golf courses, caterers and the many business that use them as a way to show they give back and for the whole community to come together. We have been given so much, it’s our turn now to pitch in and help to get that blood flowing back to business and to reconnect the community in the spirit of social and civic-connectedness.
When done right, they are the actual top of the funnel for major and planned gifts
Recently listening to Ashlee Livingstone of ‘Our Forte’ special events I found myself nodding so hard on the strategy of stewardship of special event donors I almost sprained my neck. I think what I’ve been railing against for so many years isn’t special events, but the strategy of stand-alone special events. That charities do “because we’ve been doing them for 30 years” and that haven’t been taken apart and rebuilt for a socially connected age, for a more digitally transaction supported world and most of all, not integrated into the classic fundraising donor journey.
I have to admit that when I’ve been speaking to donors, and even fundraisers this past year about strategic philanthropy that often lives in the head, the path always goes through the heart and the heart beats faster at special events. The raw roots of generosity are grounded in volunteerism and social-connectedness and nowhere is this celebrated more than community based special events. I object to these events being thought of as the main revenue source for an organization and the start and endpoint for donor relationships when the best strategy is placing them and the supporters we acquire at the start of a life-long journey together. In respect, not just revenue.
We need to look at their status as tools to solidify supremacy
Why have I had this distrust and distaste for special events for so long? Employing the legendary Toyota method of the “5 Why’s” I finally came to admit that I have always been a volunteer at the big flashy gala’s and never a willing attendee. Partly because in fact, I’m socially an introvert and find the result of the flashy garish nature of these events, the loud music and the exhausting long programs is that I question what the cause connected to the event even is.
Today, in the middle of a global social and racial reckoning I’m finally comfortable saying that I have also detested the worship of wealth that many events represent. Do we need a $1000 ticket that means only the wealthy can afford to attend an event that ironically aims to combat income inequality? In my own urban centre for decades the themes of these events are racially charged with the wealthy dressing up in the garb of African, Asian and other racial royalty, and I find it sickening. They have served to only further alienate the communities they pretend to care about and as a career fundraiser I resent that this is what most people think fundraising is, full stop. As such, I’ve been told for my entire career that these kinds of events are mandatory for networking with the power and moneyed classes if a cause is to engage in effective fundraising.
Ask today’s professional major gift professionals and they will tell you that if we’re about true aligned relationships, we don’t need to bribe people with fois gras to fundraise. The staff of charities have known this for a long time and I think today, more are willing to stand up to their boards and bosses who consider a rethink and reimagining of this strategy a mutiny.
An apology
Oof, to the professionals who run these events. Not just those who inherit them in job descriptions ( mostly of which are a bait and switch “yes we need to rethink this” in the interview, only to be told “this is how we have done things for 50 years” by the organizing committee of the board ). I’m talking about the true event professionals who proudly run thousands of community engagement events that respect the balance revenue and representation.
Leaving urban centers and seeing more of these events I’ve realized how truly wrong and off-base I’ve been because of my own context and fundraising upbringing. Adam Grant in his book gives those of us who are wrong a platform to rethink, apologize and refocus our energy and strategy. I’m grateful to organizations like the many non-profit networks across Canada who have long fostered a more community approach to special events.
Moving forward
Leaders like Edgar Villenueva in his book Decolonizing Wealth are teach us how to help without harm and that money can be medicine. Here in Canada, The Circle and their “Philanthropic Community Declaration of Action” as well as Community Foundations who are reteaching how to create community capital that has as much respect for reconciliation as it does the potential for revenue.
As we aim to build back better, instead of spending all our energy to digitize the marathon and get back to golf let’s look to rebuild what connectedness means so that “better” means “belonging”.
Paul Nazareth has worked in Canada’s philanthropic sector for over 20 years. Currently, Vice President, Education & Development at the Canadian Association of Gift Planners (CAGP), and was previously Vice President, at the charity CanadaHelps. Paul is on the board of several charities on the Advisory Council of Carleton University’s Masters in Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership program and speaks across Canada about fundraising and the power of networking for career and personal development. You can find him on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulnazareth/ ) , Twitter ( https://twitter.com/UinvitedU ) or on his latest podcast launched with Kimberley Mackenzie, The Intersection Hub (https://www.intersectionhub.ca/podcast ) .
You can also hear Edgar Villanueva speak at CAGP’s upcoming conference in April
Notes
Adam Grant: Give and Take
Adam Grant: Think Again
Read more from Ashlee Livingstone, Our Forte, about Events in the time of COVID in this Hilborn article
Cover image by Polina Tankilevitch via picnoi
