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The Power of Donor Community
I really want to believe in the blue wave, as I am sure you do. We need the guardrail it will provide. And we need some relief from the daily stress provided by this unrelenting, cruel administration.
It is an awful lot to process and to try to keep at bay while life goes on, and this is coming from the winner of the 1975 and ’76 Northside High School Suzi Spirit Award.
The midterms are on our donors’ minds.
It is inescapable, and hopeful. And thankfully, the every-hour email and text appeals from candidates will have stopped by the time many year-end appeals arrive.
Should your year-end appeal mention the midterms, either way?
Maybe not explicitly. But I do think the tone can reflect the moment, particularly the sense of hope that I believe will come out of it.
That feeling will still be fresh. Maybe it will even feel a little like the week after 9/11, when people made eye contact and smiled at each other on the sidewalks.
Something bad, like anger and feeling threatened, can make us vote and give, but something good can, too: the hope that, at least, our democracy can be saved, that all the issues we care about will feel less dire.
We must not lose sight of the fact that our collective action can create momentous change.
Giving is a collective act.
Even when the actual donation happens alone in front of a screen, giving connects someone to a larger group of people who care about the same thing.
Our job as fundraisers is to make our donors feel like a community.
That is relatively easy at special events, when people can see and talk to one another. It is more challenging through email, direct mail, social media, and the other platforms we rely on throughout the year.
As you look beyond year-end, consider creating more opportunities for donors to gather, whether in person or online. That could mean a cultivation event for major donors or a webinar that gives supporters at every level an opportunity to hear from your organization and from one another.
The format matters less than the feeling you are creating: that people are part of something together.
Whatever the outcome of the midterms, there will be more work to do righting wrongs. My hope is that we can approach that work with a renewed sense of possibility and maybe a little bit of peace.
In Community,
Doug Wingo
Founder, Wingo NYC
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