What the Fundraising

Introduction

Like so many fundraisers, I became one accidentally.

A few years out of college, I applied for jobs in the nonprofit sector and got hired for a position to run a community garden. Though I didn’t know anything about plants, I was eager to get my hands dirty, so to speak. Soon after starting in a program director role, I found myself doing almost anything the organization needed, including hiring, event planning, curriculum design, and student trip management. Wearing multiple hats is not an uncommon experience for people working in the nonprofit sector.

As the years went by, promotions followed. I zigzagged through my organization’s hierarchy, and even though I was responsible for developing programs and had little to do with fundraising, I was catapulted upward to managing director of the entire organization. With that title came a silent but pressing responsibility—raising money. Lots of money. Money I didn’t know how to ask for.

As the first person in the organization to step into this role, there was no onboarding process, little guidance on how to perform the daily tasks required, and definitely no advice on managing the intense emotions from being ghosted or rejected when asking for thousands of dollars. And forget about any tips for how to ask for that amount of money in the first place. My boss sent me out with a few home‐printed brochures, a mission statement, and a vague directive to raise money by just “building relationships.”

Here’s the truth: I didn’t ...