Is "fund-seeker" more accurate?
File under: How do you see your work?
About the industry's attitude toward the actual prime function...
Is "fund-seeker" closer to the truth?
On LinkedIn, I murmured that maybe "fundraiser" wasn't the perfect job title ...
... that just maybe a term like "fund-seeker" was closer to the truth of this difficult and sacred work.
Marlon S. quickly replied: "The term 'fund-seeker' indeed shifts perspective toward a shared journey and collaboration."
Then he asked, "How do you think this mindset influences donor relationships and long-term engagement? Have others experienced a difference in outcomes when framing their role as seekers rather than traditional fundraisers? Would love to hear diverse insights!"
[ Here's your link to the original post and comments. ]
My reply to Marlon's reply (with edits):
Thank you for your penetrating eye. You ask: "Have others experienced...?"
Me: the answer is a resounding YES! worldwide!! ... at least among those who make a good living from donor communications ~ i.e., top fundraisers, many .orgs, and the well-trained freelancers and agencies who serve them.
As you detected, "fund-seeker" is an ATTITUDE, not just a word. It's more open-ended than "-raiser," which sounds mechanical.
Thinking of the job as "fund-seeking" is akin maybe to nurturing a successful "culture of philanthropy" inside your mission's staff, board/volunteers, and the community served/affected.
"Fund-seeker" points clearly toward the REAL goal: seeking helpers in that community; connecting with the "giving identities" of those sainted, generous FEW who will in fact become donors to any single cause.
Here's the real world calling: "BLESSED FEW say YES to any APPEAL," a truth I suspect NOT much taught in NGO management school.
"Fund-seeker" reflects for me a lucrative, evolving communications skill-set that's been traded back and forth readily among evidence-eager nonprofit pros for 30 years now (we are a conspicuously generous industry in that mentoring, lifelong-learning way; with conspicuous displays of hard-earned knowledge at IFC, SOFII, and the Nonprofit Storytelling Conference).
Competent copywriters put that skill-set in play, obeying the best science and front-line discoveries, allowing charities of all urgencies and quirks to systematically GROW their donated mission fuel.
To my knowledge, today's red-hottiest fundraising copywriters ALL bring to their efforts what the "persuasion" trade means by old-school "donor-centricity."
A.k.a. "donor love" (Agents of Good).
Other happy practitioners call it "donor hugging."
Such training is easily available online, at a couple of places.
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