Writer’s Block At Agitator’s Southern HQ

February 9, 2016      Tom Belford

It’s a gorgeous summer — yes summer — day at The Agitator’s Southern Hemisphere headquarters, so I’m having a bit of writer’s block.

So I’m turning to our readers for help.

Think about the coming year and the fundraising performance you’ve projected for your organization.

Tell me, what do you see as the single biggest obstacle you need to overcome to seriously improve that performance by year’s end?

  • Faulty strategy?
  • Insufficient investment (past or present)?
  • Dull, ‘out of vogue’ or otherwise difficult ‘product’ to sell?
  • Inability (for what reason) to execute effectively?
  • Embedded incrementalism or other organisation culture defect?
  • Inadequate planning?
  • Lack of focus — trying too many things at once?
  • Simply don’t know what else to try?
  • Some external factor unique to your organization/issue and its situation?
  • Executive or board ‘blockages’ that will prevent you from addressing any of the above?
  • Something else?

Tell us … the single biggest impediment to lifting your fundraising performance this year.

Tell us, and we’ll put it on our topic list.

We’ll also learn in the process how you measure ‘fundraising performance’ … and we might even write about that!

Tom

2 responses to “Writer’s Block At Agitator’s Southern HQ”

  1. Simone Joyaux says:
    February 9, 2016 at 8:27 am

    Ah New Zealand summer. And here in my yard, telephone and internet and TV lines are down…some trees, too. Using cell phone as hotspot. But insufficient cell towers so cell doesn’t work well for calling.

    Here’s a BIG OBSTACLE that I keep seeing…have seen for years…still see…
    *******Insufficient commitment to and application of lifelong learning********

    I’m stunned at the books and articles and research that fundraisers and consultants are NOT reading. I’m stunned at self-proclaimed professionals not making time to read. I’m disappointed that these same professionals ask me what I’m reading… because they’re so busy that they aren’t identifying lifelong learning opportunities.

    Yes, I’m a curator of information. And there are so many other curators of information that share with all of us important sources to strengthen our professionalism.

    Yes, I know professionals are busy. Yes, personal lives and work lives and and… But the only answer I can think of is, choose to make the time for lifelong learning or you’ll never be a competent professional or contemporary professional. You won’t raise more money or build better organizations or build stronger communities or fight the good fights and maybe win.

    Your NGOs and your communities and the world need lifelong learners to make change. You’ve chosen whatever work it is you chose. You’ve declared yourself a professional by taking the job. You owe lifelong learning to others and to yourself.

  2. mike says:
    February 9, 2016 at 11:18 am

    Our greatest obstacle w/healthcare foundations is satisfaction with mediocrity, weak culture of philanthropy, and handcuffed to tradition.

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