Leadership Series: Is Change an Uphill Battle?

At World Vision, we have embarked on a strategic effort to excite donors to engage with the poor. For some, that means simply sending a “birthday bounce back” card to their sponsored child; for others, especially major donors, deepening translates into traveling overseas to meet our project staff and beneficiaries personally, or participating in conferences with experts to meet other current and potential donors. Our overriding donor-management theme of “supporter transformation” is founded on an uncompromising commitment to changing the hearts of our donors. Some of World Vision’s tenets under-girding our efforts to transform supporters include:

• communicating clearly;

• being accurate, complete, current and relevant in all communications;

• conveying realistic expectations of how a donation will be used;

• honoring supporters’ contact preferences and restrictions;

• ensuring all donor promises are fulfilled; and

• seeking opportunities to educate donors on issues of injustice.

Those donors who are assembling kits, starting banks and digging wells want hands-on engagement with “their” projects. They want to step into the shoes of the beneficiaries and bring them hope.