For the Love of Humanity, Grow Donors as You Grow Dollars

Remember the Season

As you scramble to help your biggest givers exceed the standard deduction so they can start worrying about itemizing again, remember what season you are really in. It’s not only the end of the tax year; look up, a number of other things are going on too.

If you pause long enough you might pick up on themes like peace on earth and goodwill toward all. We are so focused on the transaction of giving that we forget we are really in the transformation business.

Remember Your Reason

Remember way back, when all you really you wanted to do is to make the world a better place. Remember when your career goal was “just to help people.” Good news! That’s what you are doing. But it’s time to lift your head up and realize that encouraging people to give generously is, in fact, at the heart of the season.

As a college president, your mission is not to raise the money you need to make budget or build the building. Your mission is to transform lives for the transformation of the world. You do that, of course, by growing students into wise, caring, moral leaders and the money sure helps, but don’t leave your educational sensibilities on campus.

For some reason, we stop thinking about human development once an adult crosses a stage and shakes your hand. We unpack the word “commencement” at almost every graduation ceremony, but we fail to continue to be intentional about human growth in adults.

Grow Giving Values and Gift Values

One place we can be intentional is in our relationships with donors. In the best giving relationships, the dollars are an expression of values. After you’ve been in the fundraising world for a while you get to know people with a wide array of values. We tend to chalk that up to diversity, but what would happen if we thought of it as development – in its deepest sense – an opportunity for learning and growth?

Brian Hall, in his 2000 book, The Genesis Effect, describes four phases of values development with corresponding worldviews:

I. Surviving: The world is a mystery over which I have no control.

II. Belonging: The world is a problem with which I must cope.

III. Self-Initiating: The world is a project in which I want to participate.

IV. Interdependent: The world is a mystery for which we must care on a global scale.

We all know people who care for the world “on a global scale.” We also know that those donors often do approach the world in awe, not claiming to have all the answers but trusting that their generosity will meet a need.

Likewise, we spend most of our lives in campaign mode, with project language front and center. We motivate people to give in ways that make a tangible or measurable difference.

Anyone who has ever given out static cling window decals or pored over an honor roll of donors before publication knows that some people give just to be included as part of something larger than themselves.

Look at the language of most senior class giving drives for the values of duty, loyalty and doing the right thing, encouraging new givers to respond to an authority or influence outside of themselves that they don’t fully understand.   

Become a Development President

It’s possible to think of these not as just different motivations for giving, but phases through which donors grow. We’ve seen it over time. What if you, as a Development President, were the guide for such growth?

We are intentional about growing a donor’s inclination to give at full capacity, but we are not as intentional about helping them deepen their values or grow their financial capacity for that matter. We all know wealthy people who aren’t giving out of a deep sense of generosity. They have a hard time releasing control of the gift. We also know people with meager means who will give all they have to meet a need - no strings attached. We should be engaged in helping the generous prosper even as we help the wealthy become more generous.

Change the World

All of our donors, like all human beings, are on a growth path – or at least they should be. Human growth and development is at the heart of our mission. And when we stop seeing giving as a transaction but as an opportunity for transformation, we can help donors grow into to true philanthropists, people who give as a way of loving humanity.

When we help donors grow into leaders who join with others to “care for the world on a global scale,” we not only have a better chance of meeting our annual giving and campaign goals, we will also be responsible for bringing about peace on earth and goodwill toward all.

When you’re ready to become a Development President who changes the world, call me.

In the meantime, Download: 3 Things Every College President Should Know About Fundraising.