What the Fundraising

4Creating Inner Alignment

A few years ago, at my daughter’s daycare, everyone was asked to gather in a circle and share what we did for work. I said I was a fundraiser, and I felt the eyes focus on me and quickly snap away. One grandfather even let out a full belly laugh, saying, “OK, well, don’t ask me for money!”

It’s natural that the first thing that comes to mind when we say the word fundraising is money because many people usually think about fundraising as just the financial transaction when money goes from a donor into a nonprofit. I like to think about it differently, though.

Fundraising is about inspiring people to contribute to something they care about. It has the power to encourage, help, and bring people together to invest in causes and communities in alignment with their values and the world they want to be a part of. When we connect individuals with a purpose that resonates with their values, incredible things happen. A single act of giving makes a genuine impact on the lives of others and on the givers themselves.

We, as fundraisers, know that it’s about more than the money. Unfortunately, we’re often trained or managed to focus only on the bottom line. When that is the underlying incentive for all of our communications, it’s no wonder people like that grandfather make offhand comments or shy away from us. He assumed, like many do, that we’ll take anyone’s money and won’t stop until we hear “yes.” Although there are many sector‐wide issues that led us here (as ...