Happy New Year!

This is the perfect time to invoke the spirit of Janus, the Roman god who looked both forward and backward.

Looking at the state of fundraising back in 2019 and forward into 2020 I think three things ae true at the same time.  Fundraising is much worse.  Fundraising is terrible. Fundraising will be much better.

Looking back over 2019 Agitator posts involving a range of issues—from the most mundane but essential, to the all-important mindsets that should underpin of our trade, here are the worst that make for so much terrible fundraising and why, at the same time, there is reason to believe things will get better.

Before entering this thicket, a word of thanks to the scores of loyal Agitator readers who find time in their busy schedules to comment on our posts; sometimes agreeing, sometimes vehemently disagreeing, always willing to engage.

Here goes; in no particular order.  I’ll let the reader decide the appropriate order of concern, despair and hope.

• Women.  We’ll have a hell of a lot more to say about this in 2020. In 2019 we’ve been clear that one of the great failings involves the insanity, sheer stupidity, and downright suicidal result of the sector’s failure to deal seriously with gender inequality and opportunity in fundraising—both from women as fundraisers and women as donors.

Here’s a taste of what’s wrong and what to do about it from our posts. Here…. here…here and here.

It’s time to put the toilet seat down.

• Training/Professionalization.  In August and again this week we decried the turnover in our trade.  We’ve beaten this horse for more than a decade with seemingly little effect.  But all is not lost.

A number of 2019 developments show promise and deserve our support. First is an effort by two of the sector’s most committed veterans when it comes to education and training: Jay Love, co-founder and Chief Relationship Officer at Bloomerang and Adrian Sargeant, head of The Philanthropy Centre in the U.K. and U.S.

Aptly named Fundraising Standard, this new nonprofit, of which I’m a board member,  aims at getting new, beginning fundraisers off to the right start with 8 weeks of on-line training consisting of 40 hours of course work based upon proven best practices. You can check out the outline of Fundraising Standard’s 8-week curriculum here.

Also this Spring Rogare, the international fundraising think tank, released The Critical Fundraising (USA) Report containing a slew of 23 recommendations well worth implementing.

In October the Blackbaud Institute released its new online knowledge base for information and statistics about social good. Named The Explorer gives users the ability to easily and quickly search and access the social good statistics and best practices that matter to them. Check it out.

The the year also welcomed a range of relevant programs (not the usual conference fare) from the new Nonprofit Alliance that alerted the sector to the increasingly important concern of donor privacy.

I’d be remiss if I failed to mention the diverse and excellent range of blogs covering a variety of key fundraising topics.  Some offer valuable insights and tips while others, like Sean Triner and Jeff Brooks Moceanic along with Pam Grow’s,  Gail Perry’s, Marc Pitman and Clare Axelrad’s sites offer practical how-to courses for both small and mid-sized groups.

At the considerable risk (and with considerable apologies) of neglecting the contributions of great teachers, authors and general hell raisers like Tom Ahern, Simone Joyaux, Lisa Sargent, Mary Cahalane, Jen Love/John Lepp and T. Clay Buck  my point is there’s a world of talent and great advice and solid insights available out there in Blog and Twitterland.  Of course, the old “you can lead a horse to water….” admonition pertains.

Finally, this year more than most, saw the rise of a new form of “conference” – not the standard association fare given to endless PowerPoints and a rehash of program themes dating back to 1981.  These pop-up conferences, mostly virtual and recorded for future use, are the wave of the future.  By and large a positive wave.

• Digital Meets Reality. The “miraculous” …” free” …” killer of direct mail” channel generally labeled “digital” is now facing the limitations of reality.  Thanks to the work and publicly available research of Next After, M+R and Blackbaud we are increasingly aware that it’s not the end-all-and-be-all of fundraising.

The Agitator has spent considerable space to dealing with the pros and cons, ins and outs of the digital world.  From why it’s no substitute of direct mail to why smaller organizations are missing out when they neglect direct mail.

Nick has spent hours and hours, post upon post on helping readers navigate the shoals of the magical thinking surrounding Face Book and Google ( Here… here…here to list but a few.)

As I look back at the year and think about digital there’s one factoid that sticks in my mind.  On average it takes 1600 emails to produce one gift.  A sign that “magical digital” has perhaps plateaued.

And of course, 2019 was the year that privacy reared its head in a serious manner. 2020 and beyond will see the whole body of privacy emerge.  And with it a slew of demands on nonprofits, their CRMs and data providers.  For, like so many other areas of concern the issue of privacy is one in which our sector is ill prepared.   But one, in which those who master it will truly benefit.

• Behavioral Science. Lots of folks are beginning to mouth the jargon and PowerPoints mimicking the blurbs on the covers of marketing books are emerging at fundraising conferences.  Yet very little of a serious nature has yet to be seriously tested and put into practice.

With all modesty I’m pleased that for two years The Agitator has had a section devoted to answering questions about fundraising and behavior science and we’ve committed significant time and space to reporting and publishing the findings of DonorVoice research and testing when it comes to applying behavioral science to fundraising. ( Here, here,here and here  )

Each of the topics/concerns I’ve mentioned above hold great promise for the future provided they’re taken seriously: meaning that the leadership of organizations get off their business-as-usual ass and devote energy and resources to change and growth.  In the absence of a massive change of mindset and commitment we will, once again and for another year, be doomed to the “terrible” and “much worse” while complacently avoiding the much better.

Roger

P.S.  In Part 2 I’ll continue outlining other areas of trouble/opportunity that deserve all of our attention.