Hug Your Favorite Fundraiser Today
An unsung fundraising hero of mine died last week.
Services for Glenn Hoffman, 50, will be held this morning in Alexandria, Virginia. His life and dedication must be celebrated, because Glenn represented — in a quiet, steady, and non-flashy manner — much that is great in our trade.
Glenn’s direct response fundraising career spanned nearly three decades and included an almost renaissance-like range of skills and experiences. From his days in the mid ‘80s managing the direct response program for the Democratic National Committee, to a decade as head of operations for Bachurski & Associates, then as a Vice President at Craver, Mathews, Smith and SCA Direct, and finally as the Fundraising Operations and Online Manager for the 40+ million member AARP and its Foundation, there was little he hadn’t seen or done.
In an age of increasingly narrow specialization, Glenn was skillfully at home whether dealing with political fundraising, advocacy fundraising, or fundraising for compassionate causes ranging from hunger and homelessness to animal welfare.
Glenn was passionate about the causes he worked on and patient around the people he worked with. In the Cuisinart-chaos so reflective of political and cause fundraising he was a harbor of calm.
No matter how pressing the demands of clients and colleagues, he always found time to teach, to mentor and generously watch over and advance the professional development of those less experienced.
Ours is a profession fortunately populated by many unsung heroes like Glenn Hoffman. So even if you didn’t know Glenn, I’m sure you know someone just like him. Someone who quietly and selflessly does what has to be done to advance both causes and colleagues.
I never said ‘thank you’ to Glenn for all he did. I’m so sad I didn’t. I hope you don’t let too much time pass without saying ‘thank you’ … or just giving one of your unsung heroes a big hug of appreciation and thanks.
Roger
7 responses to “Hug Your Favorite Fundraiser Today”
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Thank your for post about Glenn, Roger. Along with his impact on fundraising programs, Glenn was most definitely one of the nicest people I have worked with – he was thoughtful and kind to everyone. I am sorry I will not be in town today to pay my respects to him. Hopefully there will be a lot hugs all around at his service. And some laughs, too.
And while I am at it – thank YOU for everything you have done for me all of these years. I wish I could give you a hug today.
Lovely tribute, Roger. Thank you for this.
Well said, Roger. It was a real honor to have worked with Glenn.
Dear Roger,
Glenn was a real peach; a kind and decent person always willing to answer a question or lend a hand. Glenn had a great career and a heck of a lot of friends.
At today’s memorial service a good many stories were told about Glenn and how his life touched so many people. A good person who died far too young.
Roger, thank you for the post.
Cheers,
Dennis
I will treasure recent moments with Glenn including drinking a couple beers at the NTEN conference in April or discussing our mutual ‘admiration’ for marketing/branding studies. Sarcasm intended, as he would have wanted. He was a gem and will be missed.
I had the pleasure of working with Glenn when he became my client 2 years ago (for once HE was the client instead of the agency!). I quickly grew to respect him as a professional and to like him VERY much as a person. He was kind and funny and sarcastic and genuine and a very decent, good guy.
I went to his office for a meeting on Halloween and he was dressed as usual, and said to me, totally deadpan, “I came to work in costume as Gene Wilder.” Classic Glenn!
He also had a sign displayed prominently in his office that said “If you want a friend in Washington, GET A DOG.” And Glenn loved his dogs – as I got to know him, it was clear to me there were several things he loved and were very important to him – his wife Sandy, their dogs, cycling and his environmental volunteer work.
Thanks for writing this blog post, Roger. I am going to miss Glenn very much. He truly wasn’t flashy, and that was all to the good. I like so many of the clients who I get to work with, but Glenn was truly special and made a big impact on me. His calm competence and getting-things-done efficiency are things I want to emulate. I only knew him for two years but he had a big impact on me.
Hello. Thank you for taking the time to read this brief post. I found a great application within Facebook called Evertalk where you can can setup fundraising campaigns to help families with hospital bills and funeral services. heir web site is http://www.everta.lk Hope this helps.