Education is good for everyone — but so is cod-liver oil.

By Jeff Brooks

What to do
So do you just give up? Is educating donors a bad thing? Not at all. It’s very good. The more a donor understands your cause, the better donor she’ll be. The better advocate, volunteer, thinker, voter and prayer she’ll be. She’ll even be a more well-rounded human being.

But education has to happen on the donor’s agenda — not yours. Before education can happen, someone has to care in an active, intentional way. And charitable giving is a huge step toward deeper caring. If you concentrate on raising funds (that is your job, after all), you’ll help more donors get educated than you ever will by hitting them over the head with your attempts to teach them on your agenda.