The Forgotten Foundations of Fundraising

Conclusion

Fundraising can be a frustrating endeavor. It's a job that could try the patience of Job. You won't always close the deal or make the shot. The rejections can make you feel like you're back at the high‐school dance, pawing the ground with your shoes and trying to work up the nerve to approach the next boy or girl who'll turn you down.

And for those who go out on the road, it can be lonely. We like those Lucullan Red Roof Inn continental breakfasts as much as the next guy, but travel isn't all stale donuts and glamour. There are long lines at airport security. You miss your son's birthday, your daughter's dance recital, your spouse's good moods. You are mesmerized into depression by the hotel‐room wallpaper. You clear out the mini‐bar. The maids are starting to talk. You're as morose as a Jackson Browne song.

But as Steve Miller sang about that big old jet airliner whose ridiculously narrow legroom you curse, sometimes you've got to go through hell before you get to heaven.

The rewards for a fundraising job well done are wonderfully gratifying, not to mention remunerative. You are enriching the treasury of a good cause and the lives of so many people, from givers to recipients. You are strengthening the bonds of community; you are fortifying civil society; you are enhancing the public weal; you are, in ways both tangible and transcendent, improving the lot of real people: of your brothers and sisters, your town and your country, your world and our world.

And the occasional ...