What happens when the donor flips the switch on the relationship?

What happens when our criticism of the donor backfires and, like a page from an Ayn Rand novel, all our philanthropists begin to disappear? What happens when the controls that we currently enjoy having at our finger tips start to work in the donors’ best interests instead? What immediately came to mind during my conversation today with Paul was discussions of VRM technology that would allow the donor to cut off access to their information with the flip of a switch. Paul wants us to consider the fact that some of the information asymmetry inside our CRM’s has the potential to backfire which could result in class-action lawsuits and hordes of donors insisting that their donations be returned. With so much bad behavior going on in the sector, Paul believes that such events are just a matter of time.

While discussing Paul’s new book, The Future of Fundraising, I asked him for his best advice for the young fundraiser who is perhaps still trying to decide whether or not to stick with this career path. His advice is to pay closer attention and develop a greater sense of how everything actually comes together. As we say at Responsive, young fundraisers need to learn how to think more carefully and critically about what it is they’re doing and why. I concur with all of Paul’s advice with the additional warning that most of our fundraising wizards have no desire whatsoever to see young fundraisers learn how to think more critically about the work we do. Rather than being duped by the wizards and getting frustrated when our donors don’t behave like we want them to, Paul wants us to better understand the world that our donors are operating in and to become more savvy of the systems that increasingly shield donors from our bad behavior.

As always, we are especially grateful to our friends at CueBack for sponsoring The Fundraising Talent Podcast. If you’d like to learn more about hosting the Responsive Fundraising roadshow in your local community, email me for more information. And, if you’d like to download Responsive’s latest edition of Carefully & Critically, just click here.

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