Link: Fundraising is more than tweaking a system Jan 8, 2010
In his post “Playing by the (Wrong) Rules,” Mark Rovner talks about how organizations treat people who give a lot of money, and contrasts that to how they treat people who give less money:
If I join your e-list on Monday, the system spits out a welcome on Tuesday and a solicitation on Wednesday. According to the spreadsheets, that raises more money.
… if you have some notion that you are creating a sense of community, of belonging or of emotional satisfaction by communicating this way as a fundraiser, well I?€™d like to have a little of what you?€™re smoking.
That’s quite the challenge he lays down. Mark has been saying smart, provocative things like this ever since I met him five years ago, and I suspect we’re going to keep hearing it.
Why? It’s really really hard to do things differently — every routine we have and tool we use push us down a particular path.
But props to Mark for reminding us why it’s worth trying.