Donor Identity & the Tool Shed

Guest article by our friend Jason Lewis, Founder of Responsive Fundraising

A few weeks ago, I was honored to be interviewed by my friend and colleague, Jason Lewis, on The Fundraising Talent Podcast, along with Stephen Kump, CEO of Charity Vest. Jason and I have engaged in thought-provoking conversations often over the last two years -- much of it related to his soon-to-be-published book. This interview and article are a bit of a sneak preview of what to expect from Jason in the coming months. Enjoy!

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I have met two types of fundraisers in my career: those whose professional identities are rooted in relationships and those whose identities are rooted in their tools, what anthropologist Edward Hall referred to as extensions. In his book Beyond Culture, Hall explained how human beings have always counted on their extensions to externalize tasks and achieve greater levels of efficiency. Hall’s caution was that extensions have a way of taking on a life of their own, eventually leaving us feeling helpless without them and panicking when they stop doing their jobs as effectively as we expect.

Shortly after our planet came to a screeching halt in March 2020, I watched as one of our colleagues described the experience of having one’s identity deeply rooted in an extension. In a vulnerable YouTube video, he described himself as having lost his superpower. Special events, his “superpower” and career-long extension of choice, was suddenly ill-suited for a world now navigating its way through a global pandemic. He explained that his passion had always been to help nonprofits raise money via special events. He described himself as perhaps one of the best in the country at his craft. Now, coming to grips with the scary realization of being good at something that no longer worked as well as it was supposed to, he was forced to confront the fact that our extensions have a tendency to let us down. 

This is what most concerns me about an entire cohort of today’s fundraisers - their professional identities have become tightly intertwined with a particular tool rather than the relationships that these tools were intended to help them cultivate. Instead of becoming a profession known for continuously raising our expectations of the relationships that we cultivate with our donors, this cohort is content to raise our expectations of the tools that can do the job for us.

History has taught us what holding too tightly to an extension looks like. In 1949, the Mann Gulch fire in Montana’s Helena National Forest took the lives of 13 firefighters. Over time, researchers were able to make sense of what went wrong: their leader gave them instructions that were at odds with their professional identities. To their surprise, the improvising leader told them to drop their tools and, instead of trying to outrun the fire, quickly cleared an area where they could lie down and allow the fire to move over them. These instructions were more than confusing, they immediately created an existential crisis much like our colleague was experiencing in the spring of 2020. 

Unable to make sense of their rapidly changing environment, the firefighters in Mann Gulch maintained their tight grip on their tools and continued trying to outpace the fire. When rescuers found these men's bodies, their hands were still tightly gripping their tools.

It’s important that we remember that our extensions aren’t necessarily the tangible tools that we can hold in our hands; they can also be the mental models we construct. For example, the notion of an annual fund or a capital campaign is an extension that puts what is otherwise a complex and messy process into a neat, tidy box. So many of my colleagues have become master technicians at direct response, major gifts, and grant-writing and have proven themselves remarkably capable of achieving their goals in the stable environments for which these tools were designed. Unfortunately, what very few of us were told early in our careers is that any extension is inclined to let us down in unforeseeable ways when the world becomes messy and unpredictable.

In a rapidly changing world, the fundraiser whose identity is wrapped up in holding on too tightly to a particular tool is also the fundraiser who will find themself in the midst of an identity crisis when the unexpected happens. Hall wanted us to understand the risks of transferring higher levels of responsibility to our extensions thereby diminishing our ability to do such things ourselves. He also wanted us to make sense of the fact that, when we rely on an extension, we give up some measure of context that we would expect to be there if we were to do the job ourselves. For example, sending a letter or email affords efficient communication; however, we miss out on the eye contact and body language that enhances communication when we’re seated at a table with someone. 

What the sector needed most in the midst of the recent pandemic were not masters of their extensions; we needed fundraisers who knew how to put down their tools, initiate genuine conversations, listen, and discern whether the timing of a request was right or wrong. When I think back on the number of success stories I have heard about fundraisers effectively navigating the pandemic, the common denominators have been letting go of an extension, abandoning some kind of tool or convention, and the discovery of where their real superpower resides.

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Many thanks to Jason for this wonderful conversation, and if you haven’t done so already, listen to The Fundraising Talent Podcast here.

I’m Saving Giving by providing a clear path to success, supported by data, statistics, interviews, and more - all from the perspective of a major donor. You can find more of my newsletters, articles, and other writings here, in my bestselling book, Philanthropy Revolution, or via Twitter and LinkedIn.

- Lisa