A social post that built community
File under: Virality
In just 3 days, a brief, flicked-off tho sincere social post stirred the cauldron & pulled in 33,683 "impressions" and 52 comments. Why?
Right audience, right comms channel
What I posted on LinkedIn ~ a "from real life" story:
A vendor called. Nice chat. He emailed me some info. I emailed back for a clarification: "Are you a CRM?" He responded: "Yes ... but we call it a DRM as the nonprofits I work with don’t view them as a customer but rather a Donor." Prompting this reaction: "Which is one big reason some fundraising comms underperform. Donors ARE customers. And fundraisers are in sales. But they HATE that idea, poor things." 😊
DRC commented: I mostly agree philosophically, as wanting so bad to not be sales produces intentional ignorance of transferable sales skills… ¶ But “DRM” is great marketing. I love it. I can’t believe no one else has done that yet. ¶ And I’m *ok* with it because donors aren’t *literally* customers unless they buy a thing. Just to be pedantic.
TB commented: I get why people say fundraising is sales, the mechanics can look similar. ¶ But the intention underneath couldn’t be more different. ¶ A donor isn’t a customer.
KM commented: Tom, you are a spot on. My background is in sales, entrepreneurship, new business development and then fundraising. Fundraisers certainly are in sales.
OF, Ph.D. commented: I totally agree, donors aren’t seeking utility, they’re acting on values, identity, and a belief about the world they want to help build. But that doesn’t mean the sales analogy has no place.
TFA commented: All true ... and all true! Intention matters BECAUSE it raises more money. (It does, right?) I think we've looked down our noses at "transactional" too long. It's a good thing, in its place.
MWL commented: There's always, imho, going to be a distinction between what we say in donor-facing messaging and what we say in internal, in-the-shop nomenclature. Knowing that and acting upon it is worthwhile. Twisting oneself up in knots over that distinction and failing to recognize the importance of when you are saying what to whom can turn into big, fat waste of time.
JC commented: Those of us who spent time in sales (20 years for me!) look back on it with warm feelings. For me, it wasn't about the transaction; it was about building strong relationships. I knew the names of my customers' kids, their hobbies, their dreams, and their fears.
A different JC commented: I’d say fundraising is sales adjacent. There are many qualities that translate into and from fundraising, minus the sleezy used car salesman aspect of sales.
JW commented: UGH...this thinking frustrates me so much. I have watched so many great sales folks think fundraising was going to be a piece of cake. And then they don't even last a year.
TFA again, in reply: "We're a charity. We provide NO goods or services in exchange for money." ¶ My thinking on that started to do a 180 when I learned about "reciprocity" from some scientist ... as applied in donor comms, which it wasn't much it seemed. In my first years of presenting, I had trouble finding good donor comms to show; no shortage of comms that fell short. That's changed a lot. ¶ What can I do for my donors in exchange for their generous action? Strengthen their sense of purpose, of belonging to a community's band of angels, of connecting to the new, of exploration, of spirituality, of trending .... big ETC. The only aspect of "transaction" I don't like is a narrow definition that excludes reaching for this stuff.
So, dear discerning reader, what do YOU think?
Is fundraising a form of "sales" & therefore worth studying?
And are "transactions" perfectly OK, as long as they're the RIGHT type?
Would you like to wander through the entire briar patch of statements, foils, thrusts and counters ... well, please do so. Snuggle into those replies. Just go HERE!
The article above contains ZERO AI contributions. A human wrote every word as far as I know.
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