In a previous life, I was a theologian.
I grew up in a household of faith, and my faith led me to graduate school – and a bunch of degrees in things like Bible, religion, and theological studies.
Sometimes the things I learned as a theologian inform my reflections on fundraising.
Today, the idea that comes to mind is “dialectical” thinking.
Dialectical thinking is an idea you see in a handful of theologians and philosophers. It’s baked into a lot of concepts. It has to do with the fact that certain religious tenets or philosophical claims will hold two seemingly opposing ideas in tension: the presence of the divine and human, the longing for the infinite and the finite, the experience of being saint and sinner, inspired and flawed.
Some of my favorite thinkers were all about these types of claims – usually the ones that were the angriest about something and didn’t really have time to work out nuances. They just wanted to correct misconceptions. So they ended up demanding both-and thinking. And they just left it at that.
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I bring that up in my reflections today because I’ve found that good fundraising – along with other important tasks like leading an organization, building relationships, or making consequential decisions – often requires holding two seemingly contradictory skillsets in tension.
In my experience, good fundraisers are quite rare. And I think as much as anything, the reason they are so rare is because of this fact: you’ve got to be equally good at a handful of dialectical qualities – qualities that are not exactly mutually exclusive, but ones that are rarely held together in the same person.
Here are three examples – of many:
First, good fundraisers need to understand the importance of outreach, and they need to be ambitious and fearless in reaching out: make a bunch of calls, send a bunch of emails, hold a bunch of meetings.
But they must always be tasteful in their interactions and work to ensure that every donor they interact with feels valued and heard – like the interaction they share is the most important interaction of the fundraiser’s day.
Second, good fundraisers need to be good listeners and good communicators. That is, they need to understand and be able to express nuance. And I must say – the nuance of this concept itself will be misunderstood by many!
What I mean is that, it is possible merely to interact with folks – to be transactional not only in the words you say but in the ways you approach conversations. To be “surfacy.” And I don’t just mean that you only discuss inconsequential topics. I mean that you don’t take the time to read deeply – an email, a person, a request. Because you’re moving too quickly from one interaction to the next.
And on the other side of that ability to listen is the important ability to write, or express. For the fundraiser, this can come in the form of mission-related communications: being able to express what a nonprofit is and how it is serving its mission. Or, expressing that mission in an inspiring way: telling a story, casting a vision, engaging and summarizing the human- or experiential aspect of your mission.
And finally, number three, the dialectical side of expressing nuance is the ability simply to be a down-to-earth person.
I’ve found this so many times – the wealthiest, most “impressive” major donors are just regular people. And they want you to talk to them like regular people – not being manipulative and seeing them as a means to an end; not assuming that they are an expert in your field; not worrying about all of the tiny little details that you and your team are aware of; but being able to interact with them in the way a regular person would – helping them feel valued and important and regular. Talking about their kids and grandkids, the weather, their fishing expedition, their health – all the things that regular people talk about when they’re just hanging out.
The best fundraisers have the ability to hold both of those qualities in tension: being both nuanced and down-to-earth. It’s the way so many successful leaders come across as “aw shucks” kind of people but who are much more ingenious than they appear on the surface.
Good fundraisers are all those things, and they hold them in dialectical tension:
– ambitiously outward facing and attentively individualized
– a careful listener and a visionary communicator
– a nuanced thinker and a down-to-earth pal
If you find that you’re the kind of person who has the unique ability to manage all of those qualities (and there are many more in addition to those), you’ve got the right temperament to be a fantastic fundraiser.
And if you’re a leader at an organization who has team members with those qualities, take a minute to reflect on how valuable your team members are. Because in my experience, the ability to maintain qualities like that in authentically dialectical tension is rare indeed.
Photo By Chainwit. – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=135860283
