Congratulations! You’ve mastered the basics of fundraising 101, you understand the power of relationships, and your team is working from a clearly articulated Fundraising Plan.
You’ve got the world by the tail. What could possibly go wrong?
And then you hit a few bumps in the road - internal relationships that aren’t collaborative, challenges in the “senior leadership buy-in” file, or a database that decides to go belly up...just after your service contract ended.
Uh oh. They didn’t teach me about this in my Fundraising textbook. What’s a smart and successful fundraiser to do?
They focus on their fundraising mindset.
In this series of 6 articles by Jenny Mitchell, CFRE, you’ll learn how your mindset is the single biggest indicator of your professional success. Each article provides helpful ideas and advice on how you can maintain your fundraising mojo in the face of challenges (that are often out of your control!)
Ready to read about how to change your mindset, change your success? You’ve got this!
The fundraiser mindset – how to adopt a positive mindset so you can approach your work with purpose and clarity.
The dictionary’s definition of passion is “a strong and barely controllable emotion.”
Passion is a fundraiser’s fuel.
What does passion look like?
Passion is what helps us overcome obstacles. Passion is the counterbalance to the (relatively) low salaries in not-for-profit. How many times have I heard “You’re in not-for-profit? Your work must be so rewarding.”
Well, yes, sometimes it’s rewarding…
Passion can also be misdirected or misallocated. I coach lots of fundraisers who join an organization because of their passion for the mission, and then get “caught up in the weeds” and lose their focus and discipline. They lose their way PRECISELY because they are working from their place of passion.
We may THINK we are helping – being a not-for-profit martyr, working extra-long hours, caring about EVERYTHING that comes across our desk – but I am not convinced.
Burnout.
It happens when people are too close to something. Passion colours your objectivity.
The passion opportunity
Think of passion as an opportunity. It’s a tool that can help you connect with your cause:
· Spending a night at a youth shelter to gain some first-person stories
· Sitting down with your board members to ask “why do you volunteer with us?”
· Talking with your team about what kind of work they are passionate about.
Passion may be part of your toolkit, but it does not stop you from being a professional fundraiser, one who thinks strategically about how to allocate resources and spend his or her time.
Why should you care about passion?
A fundraiser who is not passionate is an empty soul. An empty soul struggles to connect in meaningful ways with donors, staff, volunteers.
No connection, no engagement, no donations.
We need passion to connect with people. But we also need objectivity, focus, discipline and strategic thinking! These things CAN co-exist alongside each other.
Your Turn – ready, set, go!
Allocate time this week to share your passion with someone at your organization. Choose your favorite board member, programming person or donor. Make sure YOU go first – share how your passion for the organization fuels you, and your work. Then ask them the same thing.
Jenny Mitchell, CFRE, helps not-for-profit leaders change the world, one mission at a time! Connect with Jenny at Jenny@Chavender.com, or through her website at Chavender.com.
