Learning From Other People's Words

The economy is like a train with business as the engine. There will always be people in the back of the train, but the way to help the caboose move forward is not to slow down the engine.
The application of this truth to fundraising is wonderful. A nonprofit is like a train with fundraising propelling the program forward. When advocacy or program people get impatient with the attention paid to fundraising, it’s remarkably shortsighted. One nonprofit executive, faced with complaints from the advocacy staff, said, “Well, we could cut back on all this fundraising. It’s just that when we didn’t do the fundraising, we didn’t have any budget for advocacy or program staff.” Point. Game. Match.