I’m always on the lookout for quick ways to say powerful things. So when someone in the webinar chat wrote the following sentence, I noticed immediately.
”I think the existence of hungry children is more offensive than learning about them.”
The context was a conversation about “sharing the need” in a piece of fundraising, and some readers being offended.
My two cents: don’t protect donors from reality; trust them with it.
Sharing the need doesn’t feel good for the person sharing it, or for the reader. But was the situation getting any better before your nonprofit got involved and started talking about it? No.
This is why we have so much respect for effective Fundraisers: they have the foresight to know that the occasional person is going to be offended by their fundraising, and the strength to continue. Because when more people know about the need, more people will help.
Hate the need. But don’t hate sharing the need.
Steven Screen is Co-Founder of The Better Fundraising Company and lead author of its blog. With over 30 years' fundraising experience, he gets energized by helping organizations understand how they can raise more money. He’s a second-generation fundraiser, a past winner of the Direct Mail Package of the Year, and data-driven.
- Steven Screen
- Steven Screen
- Steven Screen
- Steven Screen
