‘I’m not a professional fundraiser’

FS: What do you see as the benefits of operating this way?
RLS: It’s the only way I know how to operate because I’m not a fundraiser. I run the organization. This is something that I do; it’s something that I have a passion in. I’ve had more donors give larger percentages of budgets because they feel they are personally invested in the organization. So the people who donate money don’t feel like they’re donating money because somebody sold them on something or someone convinced them to do it. But rather they feel like it’s their initiative and they feel happy to do it. It lets me focus on a smaller amount of people for fundraising and have more meaningful relationships with the donors, and it frees up my time to run the organization.