Fundraising on the edge
By Ken Burnett
September 20, 2004
I'm sitting in a circle of nine apparently sane people at a beach resort
just outside San Diego, California, and I've just been passed the talking
stick. As I grasp its fur-covered handle the eagle's feather attached to the
other end wiggles slightly, indicating that I have to speak. I'm told I have
to end my thought, which I'm not allowed to prepare in advance, by saying
'I have spoken', to which in unison the group will respond 'A-ho', native
American for 'So you have'. In the near background a barefooted guy with bells
on his feet is playing a didgeridoo. These are so-called 'wisdom circles',
and I'm in a workshop on transforming philanthropy, where on their business
cards the organizers have job titles such as the questor, the integrator,
the potentiator, the torchbearer, and the tribal chief. Fear grips me as I
grip the talking stick and wonder 'What, in the name of sanity, am I doing
here?'
It's the night before I'm due to give a three-hour presentation called The
Essence of Great Fundraising before an audience of CEOs, board members and
development directors from America's massive but under-funded health services
sector. These guys run big hospitals with budgets like small cities. And I'm
thinking 'Beam me up Scottie, they're all nuts'. What I don't know is that
I'm about to experience a fundraising workshop that will alter my approach
to fundraising training forever. But if you think I'm being critical here
you've got the wrong end of the stick. Weird and whacky though this may appear,
something extraordinary really is about to happen. These people are working
right on the edge. Don't go there unless you are prepared to change the way
you think.
I was in southern California at the request of a small and quirky outfit called the Kaiser Institute, run by Leland Kaiser, his daughter Leanne and son Kevin. Collectively, they are futurists. Kevin teaches intuition (I thought this was something you either had, or hadn't, intuitively). They say unsettling things of Leland like 'Be careful, he can read your mind'. And when you meet him, you believe it. Leanne seems alarmingly normal. In my earshot terms are bandied about including 'dialoguing with our donors', 'sleep or die' meetings and, of course, 'futuring'. I hear talk of 'transformational giving ' and 'philanthrepreneurs' (for full impact it has to be said with a Texan drawl).
And I thought we spoke the same language...
But the workshop lived up to its promise to be 'a voyage to the extra-ordinary'. My session apart (what do I ? a Scotsman living in France ? know about the American health sector?) the presentations and discussion groups were all unconventional but brilliant. I experienced the best case history of fundraising turnaround that I've heard for ages (from Mary Anne Chern of White Memorial Medical Center, East Los Angeles), learned how to create and nurture a brave new board (from the brilliant and visionary Kay Sprinkel Grace) and while supposedly mentoring Oakland's Children's Hospital on message development and major gifts, I learned at least as much from them, if not more. And with 35 others I took part in the truly extraordinary collective writing of a case statement amid a level of debate with which I found it truly hard to keep up.
I've always believed that if you come away from a fundraising workshop with just two or three genuine nuggets of wisdom or an equal number of usable new ideas then the event was well worth its cost. On this occasion I came away with lots more than that. But beyond everything else, before its end the workshop had me thinking differently and challenging everything. Here's just a few of those useful thoughts.
- Today's philanthropists give to issues, not simply to institutions. So successful
fundraisers must capture their donor's imagination (this sentiment fitted
neatly with my session, which was all about inspiring the imagination).
- The new donor-investors bring new expectations and values to philanthropy.
Those organizations that work with them must venture beyond traditional
fundraising to establish real partnerships. And the focus must center on
compelling ideas and new opportunities rather than organizational needs.
(I pinched this observation directly from the Kaiser website, but it neatly
sums up my own experience.)
- Even in the most unlikely neighborhood it is possible to find and develop
celebrity supporters and major donors.
- If you dig deep enough you'll be amazed at how well-connected your friends
and colleagues can be (particularly true of seemingly unassuming medical
staff).
- However poor the community is, people love, even revere, their local hospital.
If you consistently get your clearly branded message out to enough of them,they'll
be your best ambassadors.
- Local businesses and community groups all can be made to find the appeal
of their local hospital irresistible. The fundraiser's job is to galvanise,
harness and direct that energy. Successfully done, the results can be astounding.
- An effective board is a priceless asset (no surprises in this one). In
many cases turnaround just couldn't happen without one.
- Although the economy is in a downturn, the golden age of philanthropy is still ahead. (The Kaisers predict philanthropy will quadruple in the next 50 years. That's mega.)
In my workshop I was advising these fundraisers to do much more mundane things
like thank their donors properly, to put themselves in their donors shoes so
they'd only send what their donors want to receive rather than what their organization
wants the donors to have (not at all the same thing, actually), to do more research
so they could place hand on heart and say 'Yes, I really, really understand
my donors', and such stuff. But I sensed these high-powered folks already knew
all this. They listened politely and even attentively saying things like 'well
it's always good to revisit the basics', but I suspect if it hadn't been for
my quaint Scottish accent they'd have thrown me out. (True conversation: 'Would
you mind saying that again? Which bit? Well, gee, I guess it doesn't really
matter - I just like the way you talk.') But these open-minded people also seemed
to appreciate my message that even such seemingly small and obvious things are
often neglected. That with a little care and attention these things could have
big impact on the future of philanthropy. And that what seems just common sense
is often not very common in the fundraising profession. Believe me, the sense
of learning in those rooms was palpable.
**************************
By chance in my occasional spare moments on this trip I was attempting to read
Seth (Permission Marketing and Unleashing the Ideavirus) Godin's
new book Survival Is Not Enough, a present from Vancouver's fundraising
guru Harvey McKinnon. It's whacky enough - Seth urges us to be weird at work,
to appoint a 'vicar of vitality', advocates activities such as 'zooming', refers
to 'the change-avoidance reflex 'and asks questions like 'Why is there so much
pain in the business world?'. Odd and challenging Seth's book certainly is,
and if I hadn't been on this strange and mind-stretching course I'm not sure
if I would have persevered with it, far less made sense of and learned from
it. If you're interested in mastering change, I recommend it. Here's some of
Seth's advice that appeals to me and, I think, would find equal favour with
Leland Kaiser and his family.
- For dinner tonight eat a food you've never tasted. Try another one tomorrow night.
- On your way to work tomorrow, listen to a CD from a genre you hate or that's new to you.
- Every week read a magazine that you've never read before.
- Once a week, meet with someone from outside your area of expertise. Go to a trade show on a topic you've no interest in whatsoever.
- Change the layout of your office.
The point of sharing all this with you is that I suppose I've had a timely reminder that in fundraising it pays to keep an open mind. If I'd known in advance what was going to happen at this workshop I probably wouldn't have gone nor read Seth's book, so I would have really missed out. Even with what's going on there now, this workshop reminds me why I love America and why I want to learn there. One of the participants said to me 'I don't need more lists of things to do, but this opens my mind to much bigger possibilities'. After more than 20 years participating at fundraising workshops I don't often get a glimpse of the bigger picture, which is why I found this course so fresh.
On CNN the night I left I heard a phone-in where a caller despairingly asked
'Why is it that there is unlimited dollars for bombing Iraq but not enough dollars
to provide ordinary Americans with an acceptable level of health care?' The
Kaiser course didn't answer that, but if these people were to turn their attention
from transforming philanthropy to lobbying their government for a reassessment
of priorities, I bet they could.
***************************
I return to my wisdom circle, only to discover someone has pinched the talking
stick. We look at each other in silence wondering 'Who'll be first to break
the mold?' Not me, that's for sure?'
Ken Burnett is chairman of the Cascaid Group of marketing and communications
companies in the UK, and author of, among other books, the international bestseller
Relationship Fundraising and its sequel Friends for Life (www.whitelionpress.com).
Details of his seminars, workshops, and archived articles can be found on www.kenburnett.com.
He can be reached by e-mail at ken@kenburnett.com
