Those that are the very best at fundraising understand how to make their donors, volunteers, board, and staff feel like the most important thing in the world. Fundraisers constantly are doing what they can to accommodate other people. Many of us do this really well at home by playing the role of a good host or at work when our boss asks our help on how to do a Mail Merge. And at home or when we feel acknowledged we enjoy playing this role.
In order to be successful in development work you have to know how to link topics that are highly personal such as wealth, family life, personal success, with helping your organization. This is often one of my favorite parts of the job because you get to work with someone based on their passions to make a real tangible difference. You have to learn how to shelf or deal with your own personal ego and focus on someone else’s ego.
A great first step is to really understand what your ego is. What is important about you’d like others to acknowledge? How do you prefer to be treated, managed, talked with? Those kind of questions shed some light on your ego, and we all have one. When I get frustrated it is often because there is a piece of recognition I’m not getting or I feel like I should be treated a little bit differently. Knowing this has helped me to enjoy and focus better on others specially when I am frustrated.
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You know, I think this is foundational to all relationships, which, in my opinion is the TRUE essence of successful fundraising and development work. It’s about integrity, authenticity and a form of “servant-hood” that puts others and their needs before our own.
When we do that, ahhhh, Jason, it’s some kind of beautiful, no?