Stop Marketing and Start Fundraising

Our friends at Donor Power Blog really knock it out of the park again with this amazingly simple but powerful article:

The differences between bad and good fundraising

I would print the whole thing here, but this blog is so good that I want you to click on the link above and read it. And then I want you to subscribe to their blog.

And then I want you to read their Donor Power Pledge. It will be one of the best things that you have read since the Donor Bill of Rights.

And, please, tell me that you have read the Donor Bill of Rights....

Anyway, click the link above. Here's a teaser:

Bad Fundraising:
Organizations focus on their mission (as they should), but it has no connection with their donors -- in fact, the mission-focused people are often hostile to donors, seeing them as a problem, something they'd be better off without. As a result, fundraising becomes an external discipline, a set of practices they adapt out of necessity, like an ugly old coat that doesn't quite fit.

Good Fundraising:
Mission matters, and so do donors. They work to make their programs understandable and motivating to non-experts. Fundraising becomes an integral part of who they are, and everyone is responsible to make it happen

That analysis cuts so close to the bone that I think I need a skin graft...