Educating Donors Is Not Fundraising

I've been hearing a well-meaning but fundraising-killing myth while talking to many groups and training many boards over the last few months. It boils down to:

We need to do more education. If people really knew what we did, they would give money and our funding crisis would be over.

Or more generally:

If they knew about us, they'd give.

One gentleman took along time to explain each step of the education process. He was passionate. He was logical. And he was completely wrong.

Educating is not fundraising.