Observations from Thunder BayWe recently visited Thunder Bay, Ontario to meet with members of the Lakehead Fundraising Association and provide a workshop on engagement. We were warmly greeted and had a chance to hear from their members. Observations about Thunder Bay:
One thing we found in common among the twenty or so organizations represented, was the lack of board engagement. Many bemoaned the fact that very few of their board members understood their role in fundraising and even fewer gave a personal gift. One staff member said that despite being the fundraising coordinator, she was not allowed to meet with the board. Her Executive Director was the buffer between the board and the staff, and the two groups had never met each other. This board was puzzled about their lack of success in fundraising. Go figure! Another challenge was lack of support for professional development. Most felt their organizations didn’t see the benefit in investing in furthering their fundraiser’s knowledge. They viewed it as an expense and refused to send them to courses or conferences that would have increased their knowledge and brought back new ideas. There was similar grumblings about lack of investment in technology and databases. We call this the Poverty Mentality. Two organizations we met with had thousands of donor names in their database, but had never done a direct mail campaign to them! They had dutifully recorded the names and sent out a thank you letter and receipt, and that was the end of their contact with them. Astonishing! We told them they had huge potential to reach out with a campaign to re-engage these people. They had hope for the future after learning about how they could do this. Do you see yourself or your organization in any of these scenarios? Laura Mikuska · |
Blog Archives
Articles By Category
|
|
|
     
|
||