Is It All About the Money?
I don’t know how many email coupons I’ve received this month – somewhere in the neighborhood of 47 gazillion, I think. Half of them were from Barnes and Noble alone. This is an exhausting month to be a consumer.
It’s an equally exhausting month to be a donor. Non-profits look at December with big, hungry eyes too. I know that some ministries get up to 70% of their donations in the last quarter of the year, and a majority of that comes in December. If I’ve been sent 47 gazillion coupons in my in-box, then I know I’ve received at least 64 gazillion emails from other ministries (doing great things, by the way) telling me that now is the time to give. We’re no different.
We’ve been counting on December to be a great month for us, but this has been a tough year for the economy and non-profits like ours are feeling the effects. This USA Today article about charities struggling this year supports what I’m feeling. The bad housing market has cut into our income big time.
I think I’m struggling to balance our fundraising needs with the feeling that sometimes we’re just adding to the noise that everyone else is making about where people should put their money. It’s hard. We sit around in staff meetings looking at the commitments we’ve made in the field and ask ourselves if we’ve done everything we can to bring in donations. The answer is usually, no. We could always send out another email blast, or mail more giving catalogs, or speak in more churches, but when is it too much? When do we reach the point of turning people off because we’re beating them over the head and they’re tired of it?
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
December 29, 2007 at 6:28 pm
I’m sorry, what was that? I stopped reading at “money”.
Kidding, of course. I hear ya. People only have so much money to give. And I don’t think I’ll ever donate to Amnesty International, no matter how many free return address labels they send me. In fact, I probably won’t donate to them because of the seemingly monthly mailings I get. Any organization that spends that much money on trying to get more money just isn’t something I feel like supporting.
And it’s all about feeling, isn’t it? Someone has to feel compelled to support your cause. Personally, I don’t feel like supporting any group that puts fund-raising above works. From an animal rights view, I will never support PETA again (I did about four years ago). They do some good things, but they are a largely ineffectual organization when it comes to real change. They prey on people’s desire to throw money at a problem in order to feel like they’re doing something. But the reality is that you’re not doing something unless you do something.
And the next best thing to doing something is to give your support (whether financial or moral) to someone you know who is doing something. Not to a huge faceless organization, but to someone or a small group of people you know and identify with.
I think people turn off when they get Sierra Club asking for money every other month in the mail. People turn off when they see massive starvation and then are told to give seventy cents a day (can you believe that used to buy a cup of coffee?) from some dude on TV. People will turn back on when local organizations and friends and family get them interested in their cause and show them the 1-to-1 impact that their actions (direct or indirect) can have.
December 30, 2007 at 2:19 am
This is an increasingly difficult issue because the rules are changing as to how people want to communicate. We struggle with this as a ministry staff occasionally. Marketing (yes, marketing – when they invent a less offensive word for connecting with people we’ll all be happy) to 2-3 different generations is hard.
I know that a lot of people still want to receive a paper newsletter in their mailbox. With the old rules, direct mail marketing was effective. Organizations spent $100 and over a certain period of time that investment turned into $300. It was worth it and was the way ministries were able to produce the income they needed to accomplish their mission.
Today, especially with my generation and younger, there is a lot of hostility toward anything that comes in our mailboxes or inboxes from “huge faceless corporations.”
The challenge becomes balancing that fact with our need for money so that we can do what we do. To get money, we have to find a way to ask for it or communicate a sincere need, and that is really hard to figure out how to do right.
January 2, 2008 at 10:29 pm
I know I’ve said this to you before, Mark, but I wanted to comment on your blog as well. I am most likely to give when there’s a genuine sincerity that comes from some sort of personal connection.
I donate to God’s Kids because I know 100% without a doubt that work is being done to clothe and feed orphans. It’s a cause that really does something and doesn’t just talk about the problem! I gave to a missionary in Mexico for a long time because I had actually gone there on a mission trip and worked with him. I trusted him and his organization because I saw with my own eyes.
I may be a bit more skeptical than most, but that’s how I view it. I would never (probably shouldn’t say never…) give to an organization that just sends out emails and newsletters. Until I have some sort of personal connection with someone working for the organization, I tend to be a cynic. Isn’t that sad? But I’ve found that it’s hard to give to corporations or nonprofits unless you know that you can trust them.
January 5, 2008 at 7:07 pm
Wow powerful questions.
This post resonates with me big time. I recently gave money to a charity I saw toted on a friend’s blog that pulled on my heart. I had personal experience with the tragedy they were raising money for.
I gave pretty small amount – it was a sacrifice, but I felt like combined with others it could do some good.
I promptly was added to the organizations mailing list despite the fact that I always decline to be added. In the past months I have received marketing materials that cost way more than my original donation to get to me. I felt pretty sick about the whole thing.
Honestly reading you post here helps me feel a little better about it. I can see how people are simply trying to help and no one’s got the perfect solution yet.
January 8, 2008 at 9:13 pm
I have a very hard time donating money simply because my family struggles to meet our needs, as it is. While we live in a comfortable home and have 2 reliable vehicles (thanks only to my husband’s re-enlistment bonus!), we aren’t eating steak and caviar every night. We don’t go out often because the sitter is expensive and so is eating out if we bring the kids! While we have an abundance when compared to so many others, we sacrifice things every day to provide our family with those things. In lieu of money, we donate time, skills, we spread the word, and volunteer. Tomorrow, I am cutting off all my hair and doing another round for Locks of Love (I cut about 12″ every year and a half to donate). Thursday, I am meeting with an expectant mother whose husband is in Iraq and will not be here for the birth of her child. Though it will deal my family a very stiff financial blow, I am volunteering to be her doula. I drafted a blog post for tomorrow about this very thing – that sometimes the best “donation” isn’t money, but your time and the sacrifice you made to give that time.
I appreciate just what we have and look for ways to “share the wealth,” though not necessarily with my actual checkbook.