Pontificating Versus Ranting
A recent email to The Agitator urged Roger and me, among other things, to stop pontificating. Wanting to know precisely the crime we were accused of, I consulted the Oxford Dictionary, where I found this definition:
Pontificate: Express one’s opinions in a pompous and dogmatic way.
Hmmm, I concluded, she must have been talking about Roger.
Seriously, it’s true both Roger and I rant and get emotional. And we do get dogmatic about certain issues, for example …
- Retention must be given much higher priority by most fundraisers.
- Emotion matters more than logic in fundraising.
- Lifetime value is the Holy Grail of fundraising metrics.
But pompous? [Oxford: affectedly grand, solemn, or self-important] Ouch!
If there are two guys who don’t take ourselves too seriously, that would be me and Roger. Except of course when we’re talking about retention, drivers for giving, or lifetime value.
That said, as I noted above, I concede we do rant. [Oxford: Speak or shout at length in an angry, impassioned way.]
So, Roger and I have conferred and decided we will make this concession to meet our critics half-way … we will make our future rants shorter.
Personally, I welcome rants. They get the juices going. Force you to object, defend, or counter-attack. They can spice up an otherwise dull day in the lives of fundraisers plowing through alternative subject lines or envelope teasers.
The one thing we cannot have too much of in fundraising is passion.
Tom
P.S. My favorite rant lately is this one from Tony Elischer — Gloves Off?? — posted recently on 101Fundraising blog. Tony writes:
“We know that the biggest crisis our Sector faces is people and leadership, hence the reason we settle increasingly for mediocre people, people who are rarely going to stand up and disagree or challenge the status quo. To be honest, I feel that too much of our Sector is ‘comfortable’ in their jobs, gently bouncing along doing what they know, doing what they feel safe with and, all being well, delivering a single digit percentage increase each year. This makes me so angry, as I genuinely feel that no fundraiser should ever be comfortable; it is not part of the job. Our job is to be uncomfortable, to push to the edge and to raise our sights truly to change things.”
And he concludes: “I hope I can … get angrier as time goes on, because somebody bloody has to!”
Amen Tony. Rant on!
10 responses to “Pontificating Versus Ranting”
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I have listened to 15 minute sermons that lasted for days and 1 hour sermons that ended too soon. Please don’t shorten quality. Rant on!
Rant on Roger and Tom.
I love a good rant. Cathartic – especially if they change something. So keep ranting!
You guys tell it like it is and we need that! So don’t stop. But also respect your audience. I have to say that last week’s post about millennials pissed off a few millennials in my office. So rant on about injustice and keep tipping over those nonprofit sacred cows. But don’t count out whole categories of people.
Please please keep the rants coming.
We all need encouragement to point out whenever we can that the emperor has no clothes. We need encouragement to call it like it is — Too many of us are too nice to call the question or point out the problem. Your rants embolden us all.
I’m grateful for your blog every single day. Gail
Hmmm…. Pontificate? You tell the truth. You rant and rave. You remind us. You point out emperors and empresses without clothes or mostly unclothed. You aren’t afraid. You are provocative and candid and
KEEP DOING IT FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If something is good, I never care how long it is. And your stuff is always good. Rant all you want!
Isn’t your blog called The Agitator because your vision was to pontificate?
I love a good rant and no one does it better than you and Roger. Keep ’em coming!
Pontificate, Rant, Moan & boldly go where few other sector commentators dare to tread; perhaps a new mission statement for the excellent Agitator and it’s captains Roger and Tom.
We need more challenge, more honesty, more bloody mindedness and more directness in a Sector that is just too nice with itself, as leaders in the field Roger and Tom I salute you.
Now where is the cast for the Next Generation????