Giving is Good
Three fundamental life lessons that humans must learn in order to lead productive and satisfying lives (they build on each other in paradoxical ways): 1. “It’s not about me.” 2. “While it’s not about me, I end up with more when I give than when I receive.” 3. “While I end up with more when…
In the stock market investing world, two fundamental approaches hold court: Value Investing and Growth Investing. Value investing suggests that investors pay attention to the stock price of a company and compare that price to what they believe is the actual value of the company. If the current stock price is low compared to the…
What if the annual fund wasn’t viewed as “operational support?” What if the annual fund wasn’t viewed as the “black hole of giving?” What if the annual fund wasn’t viewed as being “too general” to be marketable? What if, instead, the annual fund was viewed as a critical and compelling part of your institution? And…
Since I don’t conduct technology-focused research and I’m not in the Artificial Intelligence market in any significant way, my best and most honest answer to this question is, “I don’t know.” But I’m also not convinced that this should be a concern for me. Here’s a quick framework to prioritize our thinking about future developments:…
In our advancement work, we consistently focus on the process of and decisions surrounding giving. We facilitate giving and gifts from donors. We guide donors on how their gifts might make the biggest difference that is meaningful to them. We thank donors for giving. Clearly, the process and the decisions involved with giving are important…
Facts don’t motivate people. Taglines don’t motivate people. Stories motivate people. People don’t create understanding from facts or taglines. People create understanding from stories. And yet, advancement folk spend significant time and effort collecting and sharing facts and wordsmithing pithy taglines – all with the hope that people will stitch together the motivational story for…
New gift officers typically have many questions. Perhaps the question that dominates the thinking of new gift officers the most is some version of the following: “Do I know enough about my new organization/the program I’m assigned to/the campaign/etc., to answer questions from donors?” Framing the question this way puts the new gift officer at…
What if we took the time to. . . listen to the perspective of others who don’t live like us? talk face to face more often instead of using a digital medium? read something written from a serious writer that challenges our worldview? volunteer to serve others or in the service of something bigger than…
Most people work in the tactical realm. To-do lists. Deadlines. Budgets. Some people lift their heads up and work in the strategy realm. Planning. Considering opportunities, strengths, and weaknesses. Coordinating tactics. But few people pause to work in the generative realm. Distinguishing which questions are most important to be asking and answering. Identifying institutional values. …
Many advancement leaders want to adopt what the “other institutions like us are doing.” Copying is safe and easy, even if whatever it is that we are copying doesn’t necessarily work well for our institution. Similarly, many advancement leaders are people pleasers. For example, if two donors out of 5,000 responded negatively to a giving…