This can be a element from that well-known lithograph by M. C. Escher, Relativity.
I feel it’s an ideal image of ineffective fundraising, and right here’s why:
One of many figures is the fundraiser. The opposite is the donor. They’re in the identical place, their toes actually on the identical steps. They’re even transferring the identical path.
However they aren’t in the identical world. Every of them is anchored to a distinct actuality, a distinct gravity. Although they’re proper subsequent to at least one one other, they will’t work together in any means.
Have you ever seen fundraising like this?
Sure, you have got: It fails to attach with the donor’s world. It’s speaking to like-minded people who find themselves close by and transferring in the identical path — nevertheless it’s anchored in a distinct actuality. When my “down” is at a proper angle to your “down,” how can we presumably join?
It’s when fundraising is about statistics, methodology, how wonderful the group and its individuals are, how profitable and necessary the work is.
Whereas the donor is in a world the place they see issues and alternatives that they need to do one thing about. They need to take motion, not help a company. They need to put their values to work, not make a course of potential.
And so there they’re, transferring alongside collectively, but in no way collectively. Miraculously, some donors to handle to achieve throughout the gulf and donate anyway. However largely, the fundraiser and the donor simply silently tread alongside, so shut, but thus far.
It’s our job to get into our donors’ world. To really feel their gravity and be the place they’re. In actual fact, it’s not that tough to do. However it’s a must to bear in mind that till you make the transfer, you might be as eerily trapped on this pointless world as these faceless figures in Escher’s artwork.
(This submit first appeared on February 28, 2019.)