The Future of Fundraising Is Here
... and it's not AI, in case that's where your mind went
When you think of “philanthropy,” what do you picture? If you’re like most people, you picture giant checks… rich people… and fancy parties. But — even though those things are very common in the “industry” of philanthropy that has developed over time — they couldn’t be further from the truth. And effective fundraising will acknowledge this, and adjust accordingly, if it wants to survive our current era.
Read on….
For You: Today’s Main Course
We struggle to trust.
Anything.
Everything.
In an era when Artificial Intelligence (AI) is bursting onto the scene and taking over everything from our customer service calls to our medical diagnoses, all while producing increasingly more of the content (often slop) we see everywhere online, we’re craving real humanity and human connection more than ever.
When we read a good piece of writing, we want to know that it actually came from the experience and creativity of a human being like us, or it somehow cheapens it… right?
When we receive a communication like an email, we want to know that we’re not just some faceless “contact” sorted into a “segment” by a bot that wrote a message trying to sound as familiar as possible… yes?
We want to know that we matter.
That real people care about us.
That we belong to something bigger than ourselves — something with the kind of meaning that human beings are made to make… while machines can only attempt some facsimile of what that might look like from the outside.
Machines don’t crave meaning.
Machines don’t get meaning.
Machines can’t make meaning.
But humans do all of those things.
And all of those things are essential reasons why humans have been drawn into philanthropy (root meaning: love of humanity) for generations.
Yet…
In the nearly two decades I’ve been a professional fundraiser, the “best practices” I’ve been taught and adopted are not actually focused on what makes us most human.
Rather, they’re quite literally adapted (and only lightly adapted, at that) marketing and sales tactics from the corporate world — which were, by design, created to compel humans to spend money on widgets that they may or may not need.
Corporate marketing and sales are adapting AI with abandon.
Being able to reach more people, more efficiently, with fewer paid humans involved in the process? We love to see that ROI, they’re thinking!
And because nonprofits are situated within a capitalistic culture that prioritizes and values this sort of thinking above all else, nonprofits tend to think this way too.
Better ROI for our fundraising with AI?
Sign me up!
Right?
But here’s the problem with that thinking.
The more we mechanize our fundraising…
… the less human it becomes.
And the less human it becomes…
… the less successful it will be.
You don’t need a research study to prove this to you.
You feel this in your bones, right?
Do you feel passionate about work that supports your community… if it feels like you are just one name on a spreadsheet somewhere, just a mail-merged data point on a multi-channel appeal that comes to both your email and home mailbox, in addition to showing up on your social feeds, with everything being perfectly coordinated in its implementation and consistent in its design (a.k.a. good marketing 101)?
Does that really inspire you to ignite your love for humanity?
My guess is no.
That’s certainly my answer, if I’m talking as an honest human and not a professional fundraiser trained in these tactics.
And at this point in my career, nearly two decades in?
I’m done.
I’m done with ranking donors according to their “lifetime value”… with referring to only certain humans as “high net-worth”… with mechanizing communication with donors… with calling some donors “major,” which inevitably intimates that other donors are “minor”… with referring to philanthropic giving as “charity”… with telling the public only the shiniest, most spiffed-up stories about the mission and the work… with running fundraisers into the ground while they try to singlehandedly manage hundreds-to-thousands of relationships at once… with treating the money like it matters the most, far surpassing the many many humans involved in the process of the work… with thinking about donors as though they’re “ours” and acting possessive of them, especially around other nonprofits… with calling human beings “prospects”… and doing “prospect research” on donors to learn things about them they never intended for us to know, instead of just asking them to tell us themselves… with leaving power dynamics with donors unexamined and undiscussed… with not having real, honest, mutualistic relationships with donors… and more.
All of the above realities — well-represented within the field of nonprofit fundraising — show how far we’ve gotten from the essence of true philanthropy, of every part of this work being centered on a love for our fellow humans.
AI certainly doesn’t fix this — it can only make it worse.
What do we need instead?
We need community.
Collective Giving Will Be the Future of Fundraising
I’ve had multiple collective giving experiences in my life.
Tune in next week, and I’ll tell you about them.
But ultimately, a combination of these experiences… and my experiences as a professional fundraiser… and with how much dissonance I felt between the two… and of how much I knew in my bones that there was a better way to do fundraising… gradually led me to be convinced that collective giving was the way forward for our field of nonprofit fundraising.
So imagine my thrill when Hali Lee wrote a whole book about it, which was just released last year!
And then, imagine my exponentially greater thrill… when, over the past two weeks, both of our major community foundations in the Twin Cities — The Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation… and The Minneapolis Foundation — held events welcoming Hali to town to discuss her book and its ideas.
I wasn’t just thrilled to meet Hali.
I wasn’t just thrilled to see my communities discussing collective giving.
I wasn’t just thrilled to see two of the stalwarts of institutional philanthropy in our area clearly throwing their significant weight behind the prospect of collective giving.
I was especially thrilled to see the vibrant, diverse, engaged, curious crowds that came to both events… and seemingly left ready to dig in and really get going with collective giving!
Something is brewing here.
I can feel it.
And I couldn’t be happier about it.
Again: tune in next week, when I will tell stories about my collective giving experiences, so you can start to get a sense of what this looks like in practice — and how you might be able to try it yourself.
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Conversation: Your Real Real
I really want to know your more detailed and nuanced thoughts, too. Let’s start a conversation on this topic. Visit the comments section!
Community-Weaving for Fundraisers
Life’s been LIFING lately, yes?! Now is the time to reach out and connect with others. When you’re embedded in supportive community, even the most difficult things don’t seem so hard.
Your community is waiting for you!
Advice when you need it. Been-there, done-thats. Commiseration. Support. A place to vent. Guidance and mentoring.
All of this — and more — is what happens throughout each month…
… at Community-Weaving for Fundraisers.
Just community-based fundraisers. Gathering for (virtual, on Zoom) lunch together. Twice a month. Year-round. Chatting and supporting each other via WhatsApp in between lunches. Being there for each other.
All you need to do is show up and be present… while I guide, facilitate, organize, and create the container.
Practice: Make It Yours
I’m giving away a copy of The Big We: How Giving Circles Unlock Generosity, Strengthen Community, and Make Change.
How can you put your name in the hat to win the book?
Reflect about your experiences with philanthropic giving.
Ask yourself these questions:
What have been your less-than-ideal experiences as a donor?
What have been your best experiences as a donor?
What are the questions you have about collective giving?
Write your answers in the comments section on this post, and I will draw a winner from the commenters to send the book to.
I can’t wait for you to read it!
A Gift to Take With You: Something to Sit With
Giving circles are not the only way to build belonging, but they’re a really good way, and something any of us can do. You don’t need to be wealthy to practice generosity (and building community) in this manner. Giving circles bring philanthropic practitioners closer to their communities and the people who inhabit them. Giving circles encourage the type of connection and closeness that Big Phil seems to try to keep at a remove. And giving circles can help knit us back together again.
- Hali Lee
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