Q-and-A With Award Winners

What are your greatest fundraising challenges? I think the biggest challenge is to get into the mindset of the donors and stay there, all the time. It’s hard. I saw a car the other day, plastered with a bumper sticker for every liberal cause in existence. If we’re passionate about a cause, we may wear it on our sleeve, or on our bumper, with great pride. Such zeal can be good and bad. Good, in that passion can be wonderfully persuasive. Bad, in that too much passion (especially the angry, slightly raving kind) isolates you from human engagement and makes you a lousy marketer. I get a certain feeling when I see cars like this: “Wow, that looks like a nice, well-intentioned person, but hope I don’t run into them at a cocktail party.” If you are a very loud preacher for your cause who rarely breaks to listen to your audience — or take in their perspective — you could end up with an audience of one. Yourself. The challenge is to be passionate, but be in a conversation with potential supporters. Good marketing is not a stickerfest, nor is it a monologue. It’s a give and take.