Welcome to Cultivating Generosity,

a Rad Philanthropy Newsletter

Welcome to Cultivating Generosity, the newsletter to help you flourish as a values-driven and joyful nonprofit and advancement professional. I'm here to help you connect to you and your community's purpose. I'll share tactical information to engage your supporters around the acts of giving (time, talent, treasure, ties, testimony), ask you to reflect deeply about the why behind your programs, provide sector news, and we'll have a fun time while we're at it.

First thing's first: we got a kitten. Photo and more info at the bottom of this email!

Beyond that, today's issue is all about trust. Trust is critical because fundraising is fundamentally about relationships, community, and problem-solving. Without trust, you can't build relationships, can't come together, and can't get things done together. Let's dive straight into it.

Enjoy - Perry Radford, Fundraising Coach and Consultant

Rad Reflections Trust in the Nonprofit Sector

In "Relentless Fundraising Is Eroding Trust in Nonprofits. Here’s How to Fix Things", the Chronicle of Philanthropy describes how transactional fundraising practices are affecting relationships with donors and contributing to the great donor decline trend.

One of the indicators that your nonprofit is engaging in this behavior is the dreaded comment, "I only hear from you when you want money." Even if it's not true, allowing this perception to linger will destroy your ability to have meaningful relationships and fundraising.

While the article offers great tips to evade this situation, I have a few more ideas:

• Think about the level of influence and power you have at your nonprofit. How can you ensure donors and friends are being engaged outside of fundraising communications?

• Evaluate whether direct fundraising asks are the best use of front-line staff time. If your org is low-trust, focusing on pure engagement or listening without fundraising may be exactly what you need to build trust and successfully solicit in the near or long term.

• Are you feeling the ick about how you're asking for gifts? If it doesn't feel right to you, how could it possibly feel ok to donors? That feeling is trust breaking.

Learn Guter Rat für Rückverteilung

The Guter Rat für Rückverteilung (“good council for redistribution” in German) is a group of 50 residents in Austria advised by experts - and convened at the request of Marlene Engelhorn, an Austrian heiress who seeks to give away her inheritance.

I've been following Engelhorn's philanthropy journey for a while. In part, she's taken this path due to a lack of inheritance tax in Austria. Working with an advisory group, 10,000 Austrians were invited to participate in the council and give away 25 million euros that were part of her inheritance.

This is such an interesting idea about trust and giving. I don't think people with the most money are always well-equipped to decide how those funds should be used philanthropically, especially when that wealth was built on exploitation. This approach takes that idea and 1) adds a solid dose of perspectives, as the council came from many different backgrounds, and 2) bakes community engagement and deep consensus-building into the grant-making process.

I believe community is the answer to many of society's problems and am curious to see if other ultra wealthy individuals look to shake the elitism built into much of philanthropy and partner with those in their community to make an impact together. Civil and deep discussions about our values, as expressed by philanthropy, can build trust inside communities and create a virtuous cycle of helping, together.

One More Thought Your Biggest Summer Mistake

I've been sharing how fundraisers and nonprofit teams can use the summer slowdown to get ready to be effective come the fall fundraising season. But there's one big mistake I see a lot of folks making, or rather, allowing to happen: They're working on searches for annual giving leaders right now.

Why is that a mistake? Because they should be knee-deep in planning their fall solicitation calendars and creating content NOW. While this may not be avoidable or anyone's fault, you definitely need to have a strategy to counter this problem.

Fall solicitations need to arrive early, especially with how much competition for attention there will be from the election. Teams also need to have their main solicitations out and ready early so they can be nimble and flexible in targeting key segments and doing personal outreach, ensuring they can hit critical goals.

As I see countless open positions right now, all I think about is how much trouble fundraising shops will be in come the fall, when they haven't used their summer time to prepare their solicitations in advance. Even if you onboard a new director of annual giving by September 1, you'll still be too late.

So what can teams do to avoid this pitfall? Hire interim staff to develop your fall plan and solicitations now. And good news, everyone - I have one space left with my consulting practice to do exactly this work for you this summer. I can help with solicitation calendar development, project management, content development, setting up campaigns with your fundraising tech stack, and much more. If you're ready to fill this gap and make sure your fall fundraising plan is secured, reply to this email to discuss how I can help!

Playtime with Perry WE GOT A KITTEN!!!!

Did this newsletter leave you with any burning questions about fundraising or nonprofit? Drop me a line at perry@radphilanthropy.com and I'll help you out.

Interested in working with me? Book a session with my Calendly link.

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