Getting It—or Not

Hmm.

The purpose of the exercise is to get inside the head of each role—philanthropist, nonprofit executive and community member—to understand and appreciate their particular point of view.

All three roles contained mutually exclusive elements, yet Celia said she was the same in all three roles. She simply remained herself.

The result? Celia never got outside of her own paradigm or adopted a point of view outside of her own.

When you have a cause that you're passionate about, successfully engaging another to support that effort requires that you understand his or her particular needs, visions and values.

Since ours is an urgent and noble cause, we often make the assumption that the potential supporter will feel as passionate as we do. But often they don't.

The solution? Simply persuade or convince them to our cause, right? Wrong!

Principle 4 of The Eight Principles™ is Learn & Plan™. First learn who will really support you by affinity and values, and then plan how to approach them. Learning who will really support you requires adopting another point of view. It requires getting into another's head. It requires getting over ourselves.

The conventional wisdom says persuade potential donors to your point of view. Any donors. Anywhere. Sounds like a lot more work, and not nearly as rewarding.

Philanthropy and its mirror image, fundraising, really aren't about money. They're about people.

Getting to know people—what they value and what they envision—is essential before reaching out. Essential, that is, if your goal to build a base of dependable investors who will sustain your organization over time.

When we're over ourselves and realize the truth of Principle 1 of the Eight Principles™, Donors are the Drivers®, we're ready to seriously engage our supporters to seriously support us for a serious period of time.

I extend my thanks to Celia for her candid feedback—and the impetus for this article.