Insights for Non-Profit Leaders

In his book, Hearts Touched with Fire: How Great Leaders are Made, David Gergen writes, "Polio was the dividing line in Franklin Delano Roosevelt's life - the pre-polio days and after-polio days." Before polio, FDR was a snob, shallow, and selfishly ambitious. Post-polio, he was reflective, responsive, and resourceful. His biggest problem became his most potent path to prosperity. 

Donor development leaders need help with the pressing problem of a declining donor base. Through the pandemic, donations held steady, but they know they can only sustain or scale with a growing grassroots giving base.

Let's dive into the root causes and reasons behind this decline. 

Many Non-profits, in their donor development efforts, make the same common mistakes that businesses make routinely in their sales efforts.

Three particularly stand out. 

In 2011 as a presidential candidate, Mitt Romney famously stated that "Corporations are people too." Romney, a businessman, and leader of the 2002 Olympic games, painted the picture that people are behind the curtain of corporations. Real people with real problems. 

Below is an article I wrote that was recently published on Forbes. 

Academy award-winning "best original" song, Eye of the Tiger," by rock band Survivor, was the legendary theme song of the motion picture Rocky III.

The Bendix Corporation's Fram Oil Filter Marketing Team created one of the most successful television ad campaigns of all time in 1972. American actor Walter Mathews was the original mechanic in the ads. The slogan "You can pay me now or pay me later" ($4 for an oil filter or hundreds of dollars for an engine rebuild) became an iconic catchphrase that went way beyond oil filter sales. It resonated with millions because it represented an important life principle. How you treat things of value determines their overall vitality and, ultimately, their viability.

“In the 1930s, Harry J. Hoenselaar was just another ham salesman in Detroit trying to find an edge,” writes award-winning NY Times journalist and food culture expert, Kim Severson. Hoenselaar was an expert at knifing ham from the bone. He would spend significant parts of his day handing out samples and teaching drugstore clerks how to slice it for samples. Severson states, “He knew there was a better way.”

Clarence "Kelly" Johnson is credited with coining the KISS principle, i.e., "Keep it simple, stupid."

The temptation when going after big goals is to glide. The path gets painful, so pausing seems like a palatable plan. Get after your dreams, don't settle. Shoot for the stars.

True story.

Serena Williams is arguably the most prolific women's tennis player of all-time. January 4, 2017, was not one of her better days. As the number 1 player in the world, she dropped a match to 72nd ranked Madison Brengle.  That day, in uncharacteristic fashion, she committed 88 unforced errors. To add insult to tournament injury, Brengle said her strategy that day was simple. It was to "play 'ugly' off the return." In other words, to purposely play bad. She quipped, "I think she was surprised how bad I was."