Fundraising, the Cave Man, and Don’t Tell the Donor

When I first ventured into the world of nonprofit blogging, I did so with much anticipation and fear.  Anticipation to learn new things, to explore new areas within fundraising, and to share a little of what I’ve learned with a few others.  To shine the light so to speak. The fear part comes in because, as with most new things, the unknown can be a bit dark, unforgiving, and can close in on you very quickly.  Uh, very similar to a recent caving expedition in the hills of West Virginia.  The picture below pretty much says it all. (Yes, that’s me on the left.  And you can stop laughing now.)

Oh geez, there are a ton of similarities between fundraising and caving.  I’ll spare you.  Ok, I can’t resist just a few: wear coveralls because you never know what crap you’ll be asked to crawl through; and…watch out for ‘ol bats - you’ll usually find them CLINGING to the walls.  One more:  gives data mining a whole new meaning.

I’m done. 

Back to my point.  Over the past few months, I’ve managed to meet some extremely intelligent, fascinating, and interesting nonprofit bloggers and fundraising professionals.  A few have helped me out in so many ways - encouraging email, wonderful posts, the ever-so-amazing links to Donor Insite, and just plain reading what I write.

One such person is the writer (known only to us as “a fundraiser”) of the blog, Don’t Tell the Donor.

I emailed ”a fundraiser” and asked him about the “why” behind the title of the blog. I also wanted a bit more info as to why he began “Don’t Tell the Donor” in the first place. His response:

I was actually being sarcastic with the title at first.  By publishing the kinds of things fundraisers try to hide from donors… hopefully I am doing exactly that and brining more openness to nonprofit fundraising.

Writing “Don’t Tell the Donor” allows me to do what I love most - raise funds for great groups…but I’m also a donor.  I support (many) charities on an annual or monthly basis.  And after working in nonprofits for several years - I was surprised by the tension between the daily secrets fundraisers try to keep from donors and the need to be open and build trust.

I’m still feeling my way through it.  But I think it’s important to say that I see my mission as being the same as Jeff Brooks - trying to teach organizations to respect their donors… or else   I hope my site provides some relief from their frustrations at dealing with the tension of openness with their own donors.

In my book, he accomplishes his mission very well.  There you have it, why such a great blog has such an interesting title. 

I’m done digging around now.

Tags: Blog, General Fundraising, Nonprofit