Grab Your Partner!
● Consultants are just as passionate about the causes as those who work in them. The great part of consulting is you get to work on multiple charities at once. You can learn, adapt, share and help make the fundraising industry better overall. The bad part is sometimes the charities don't see the passion, and it's hard to get on the inside.
● A production schedule isn't science fiction. We do our best to base it in fact and then write new chapters if it goes off track.
● He/she/they don't know us as a charity and won't listen, so how can they fundraise for us?
● He/she/they hired us for our expertise in fundraising, but won't let us do what we know how to do.
● Comic Sans does not inspire confidence or professionalism — for either side!
● All of you — take those photos in HIGH RES from the beginning. You know we're just going to ask for them again.
The best advice I can give for folks on either side of the table: trust, listen, learn and do your job. No matter what that job is, own it and use the role to further you organization, your charity and make the world a better place in general.
I'll have the support group up and running by June. In the meantime, I'm available for Skype or online chat sessions. Good luck out there. Changing the world isn't always the easiest job, but solid client/agency relationships can help. FS
Jo Sullivan is senior director of integrated marketing at the CDR Fundraising Group. Reach her at jsullivan@cdrfg.com.
So, I'm a fundraiser having a mid-life crisis. And that's perfectly fine with me.
I am taking time to look around, lift my head and find REAL people who really want to change the world. And people smart enough to do it. Join me in this fun journey. I have no idea where we will end up - and that is the beauty of it. I'm nonprofit passionate, a hopeful world changer, and always ready to share what I know, learn what I don't, admit when I can't, and ask the hard questions.
While you're looking around for other areas of inspiration, check out The Moth Project at themoth.org (the podcasts are AMAZING), TED talks (doesn't matter which ones - find topics that interest you) and Volunteer Voices (again - love the podcast) written by volunteers from the Peace Corps. Don't see the immediate connection to being a better fundraiser? Just listen, you'll hear the message ...
