Had an “aha” moment this weekend after reading Chris Brogan’s blog – Pursue the Goal Not the Method – This is what we encourage our clients to do every day with their fundraising efforts, yet never say it so succinctly.
How often do your fundraising efforts go “by the book”, I bet not many times. Most often you’re thrown a curve ball, i.e. your lead donor comes in at less than what you expected; the grant you were SURE to get, you didn’t; your Board was less than enthusiastic about selling tickets / tables for your recent event, etc.
Then what do you do? Do you spend countless hours or days wondering why? That “method” had worked before, what happened this time? STOP!
As Chris wrote, methods change and we all have to adapt. My favorite line from Chris’s blog was “What if you threw out EVERY method you were using before this very moment? The goals would still be there.”
That’s so true in the world of fundraising!!
Now I’m not saying that we abandon the tried and true ways of fundraising, i.e. peer-to-peer, meaningful stewardship, well rounded developed efforts, etc. what I’m saying is that when you are thrown that curve ball and your “method” isn’t working – STOP! Then adapt, learn a new technique / method and move forward in pursuit of your goal.
So what method isn’t working for you and what are you going to do to STOP so you can move forward?
