Lazy Fundraisers

August 12, 2015      Roger Craver

As he dashed out the door for his annual vacation Tom’s last act was to fill The Agitator’s “Grist Mill” Inbox with a ream of suggestions for posts during his absence.

Maybe it was the demon of envy in my self-conscious that forced my eyes to settle on one item. After all, this year Tom was taking his entire annual vacation allotment all at once –- a full 8 days reflecting the Agitator’s policy of 1 day of vacation for each year of service. Something he had never done.

The item? A post by Seth Godin titled The other kinds of laziness.

I worried. Was Tom’s work ethic finally eroding after all these years? So, I read Seth’s post and it got me thinking.

LazySeth brilliantly distinguishes between the “obvious sort of laziness, the laziness of not trying very had, of avoiding strenuous tasks or heavy lifting of getting others to do your work or not showing up for many hours each day” vs. the sorts of laziness that are far more damaging.

Seth’s Examples:

  • The “laziness of racism and sexism, which permits us to write people off (or reward them) without doing the hard work of actually seeing them for who they are.”
  • The “laziness of bureaucracy, which gives us the chance to avoid the people right in front of us, defaulting instead to rules and systems.”
  • The “laziness of rules of thumb, which means we won’t have to think very hard about the problem in front of us, and don’t have to accept responsibility for the choices we make.

I believe some additional examples cited by Seth deserve special attention and thought by Agitator readers. These are the examples of sloth, blind adherence to ‘best practices’, and sloppy thought that most threaten our craft and the donors and organizations we serve. In Seth’s words:

  • The “laziness of rules of thumb [‘best practices], which means we won’t have to think very hard about the problem in front of us, and don’t have to accept responsibility for choices we make.”
  • The “laziness of letting someone else tell us what to do, ceding the choice-making to anyone bold enough to announce what we’re supposed to do next.”

And…

  • The “simple laziness of not being willing to sit with uncertainty…”

I hope each of us will give this last type of ‘laziness’ extra special attention and thought.

The future of both our craft and our sector involves nothing less than undertaking and mastering the extraordinarily tough task of embracing uncertainty and seizing the immense opportunities that spring from that uncertainty and ambiguity.

  • “Lazy” fundraisers will continue to blindly accept conventional practices and old wives tales firm in their believe that ‘since so many others do it, so should I.”
  • “Lazy” fundraisers will continue to ignore the voices, needs and feedback of their donors while blithely focusing on wringing the most out of their ‘target audiences’ campaign after campaign. They’ll never even attempt to understand why sometimes “less is more.”
  • “Lazy” fundraisers will stunt their own growth and therefore the growth of their own organizations by ignoring the latest findings of the behavior sciences and what they can teach us about our practice.
  • “Lazy” fundraisers will continue to turn their future over to agencies and consultants offering the same-old-same-old approach brightly wrapped in the latest sparkling jargon.
  • “Lazy” fundraisers will roll over and play dead by working for CEOs who don’t care about donors and staff and Boards who either don’t care about or ignore all of the above.
  • “Lazy” fundraisers will continue to blindly join associations that have too-low standard and quality and attend too many conferences where the content, and thoughtful originality remain dismally primitive.

As Seth notes, “When we find ourselves looking for a shortcut, an excuse or an easy way out, we’re actually indulging our laziness.”

So, I’m glad Tom was “lazy” enough to pass along Seth’s post. I no longer envy Tom his 8 vacation days.

Roger

P.S. I’m sure every Agitator reader has her/his own versions of what constitutes the dangerous and damaging forms of fundraising laziness.

For the “Hardworking” side of the ledger please share some examples of the work or actions you undertake to prepare for and deal with an uncertain future. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

6 responses to “Lazy Fundraisers”

  1. Simone Joyaux says:
    August 12, 2015 at 7:32 am

    Thank you, Tom, for this great idea. Thank you, Roger, for remaining “off vacation” and writing this.

    Here’s one of my most frustrated “lazy fundraisers” thought. READING. READING items in the NGO sector (not just in fundraising!) READING items outside the NGO sector and fundraising business. How about reading books by Seth Godin and reading Sherry Turkle’s work and Shankar Vedantam’s Hidden Brain book and all those articles in the Harvard Business Review about planning and thinking and innovation and change and governance and systems thinking and the Heath Brothers and Dan Ariely and… Well just read my weekly blog and you’ll see all sorts of stuff.

    I’m repeatedly shocked that fundraisers don’t read enough inside the NGO sector and in fundraising. I’m repeatedly disappointed that fundraisers don’t read outside in the world…in business and other bits here and there.

    People ask me how I find the time to read so much. My answer: “I MAKE the time. I CREATE the time. I DEMAND of myself to make and create the time.”

    Would I rather read a novel? You bet. Do I have too many unread books on my bookshelf? Yes, indeed.

    Stop the LAZINESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! READ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    As you can see Roger and Tom…. You pushed my agitated button big time.

  2. Kathy Swayze, CFRE says:
    August 12, 2015 at 9:29 am

    I’ll throw in a thought. What about the “laziness” of letting your CFO tell you that you have to put your program out to RFP every three years even though your current consultant is helping you exceed expectations in retention and revenue? Don’t be lazy. Make the case for why an additional RFP process will waste your time and tons of other people’s time. Show them the hard numbers of how much better a new agency would have to do in order to make the hours invested in a transition process pay off.

  3. Ashley Belanger says:
    August 12, 2015 at 11:15 am

    Perhaps it’s because Simone Joyaux is my mentor and has set a brilliant example of what it means to truly be ENGAGED in the work…

    But, I am also baffled by what presents as a lack of interest in ongoing learning in the sector.

    My strategy for the “hardworking” side of the ledger: I find people (like Simone Joyaux and Tom Ahern) who know a ton more than I do, have been working in the sector a lot longer than I have, and who are themselves ongoing learners. I ask them how they got to be so awesome. Then I do what they’ve done–i.e. read lots of stuff.

    Then I ask questions, think critically, try stuff, and adapt constantly.

    In the words of Theodore Roosevelt, “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” I would also add: And do what it takes to be able to do more, eventually.

    I learn stuff even if it’s not immediately relevant but I know (or hope) that someday it will be.

  4. Mary Cahalane says:
    August 12, 2015 at 11:37 am

    Simone, in defense of that other reading… sometimes my best ideas come from places that have nothing to do with fundraising. So I’d say read, a lot, all the time.

    Some of us learn better reading than listening (that’s me). Some do better at conferences or webinars or the like.

    But not learning all the time is a big mistake. Even if someone actually did know it all that would only hold for a day or so – because the field is changing all the time.

    So maybe the piece of fiction I’m reading takes me to Mars. But it leads me to think about how communities are formed and why they work. Or how big challenges can excite people to do even bigger things. Well, you get the idea.

    I’m troubled by people who aren’t curious. Being curious is such a necessary thing!

  5. Pamela Grow says:
    August 13, 2015 at 7:35 am

    I second Simone and will say this: when I started in this industry, there wasn’t much out there for fundraisers. And there certainly wasn’t the wealth of information (and misinformation) out there on the internet. My own education started by learning from the leaders in direct response. So I started out with phenomenal success. When I did finally take some industry training, it was tame in comparison.

    And yes, learning needs to be consistent. That’s why my courses and membership are set up to encourage participants to devote an hour a week to learning, include all mediums (audio, video, written), and are constantly revised and updated.

    Being curious is a critical component of a successful fundraiser.

  6. Simone Joyaux says:
    August 14, 2015 at 6:25 am

    Hey, Mary. NOVELS. FICTION. Yes!!!! I often quote novels in my own business articles and business books. Fiction has insights. Fiction is stories. And fundraising is stories. And and and ….

    Ah the CURIOSITY thing. The “Folie du pourquoi” as we say in French. The insanity of “why.” And yet, we purge that from children by their pre-teens, apparently.

    And thanks, Ashley, for the comments. Teddy R’s quote is great… as is your follow-up to it.

    Read on!

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