In working on the Starting Over series that we’ll launch next week I’ve been fretting, worrying and, frankly damn near exploding with frustration.

So please permit me this rant.

There’s no question that virtually everyone has an excuse for not changing. Frankly I blame most of this resistance to the idiocy of stingy boards and CEOs who want no part in understanding donors’ needs nor paying to find out how much they can about them.

Att the same time I don’t want to let any of us off the hook.

How many times have I heard “We don’t have the budget or time” from seasoned fundraisers who sure as hell know better?

It’s really time we all  understand it’s not about the budget, it’s not about time. Organizations that don’t bother determining  their donors’ needs and preferences are doing so because they really don’t want to.

They make a choice not to spend money and time surveying, seeking feedback from donors and understanding preferences simply because they don’t think it’s important enough.

Bottom line. The sad truth is that most organizations don’ think this sort of activity is important enough. The reason? They don’t care enough about their donors to really find out what they should be delivering to them by way of communications, appeals and services.  Donor experiences that meet the donor’s needs and preferences, not the needs and preferences of the organization. Not experiences derived from  the fundraiser’s own hunch, nor the collective hunch and conjecture of so-called industry” best practices.”

We so easily mouth the terms donor-centricity, donor-centered or donor-focused. In truth this palaver amounts to nothing more than a failed and broken record of talk without performance. Why?  Because in practices how many of us really ask the donor what they want and prefer?

I remember recently listening to a conference speaker representing a major organization extoll the virtues and listing assorted actions that should be taken to get to donor-centeredt nirvana. At the end of the session I asked how she tested and proved the values of her recommendation with her donors.

Her answer: “We don’t have time to do that right now. We can’t do everything.” Unbelievable!

Another despairing favorite is listening to CEO’s and top charity officials extol the virtues of the digital revolution. Most don’t even visit their own websites. They smile condescendingly and remark: “I’ve been informed that it’s easy to use.”  But of course none or few of their organizations bother to ask the donor about usability.

The further I go up the management chain the more pathetic. In short these nonprofit leaders are disconnected from their donors, but they just don’t seem to care.

Then I remind myself that today’s top nonprofit management and so-called “leadership” is managed on the old feudal model. It expects subservience from employees AND from donors. In this deluded bubble the concern for and understanding of the donor is a vacuous concept disconnected from the reality of how organizations behave.  Of how their set their priorities and spend their money.

I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count the number of fundraisers who will spend thousands, hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars on acquisition but not one cent on finding the answer to the most important fundraising questions: What do our donors want? Are we delivering? Why do they leave us?

So how do we succeed in this sea of apathy and unwillingness to learn and change. We do it by persisting in testing and adapting. By sharing our empirical findings, not platitudes, with others in a truly collaborative manner.

Organizations that do not seek to understand their donors’ needs and preferences and then test the best ways to deliver on those findings are doomed. Those who seek to discover these needs and adapt on what they deliver to donors have a bright future.

Roger