A few years back I had the pleasure of having Penelope Burk (of Donor-Centered Fundraising fame at http://www.cygresearch.com/) consult with the team I was on over a period of time. If you haven't read her work I highly recommend it, and if you can afford her in person I recommend that even more highly, but her focus on doing right by the donor, and adhering to their wishes makes eminent sense.
Or does it? Maybe not all the time, or at least not if the donor doesn't have the full picture...
I had a chat last week with someone who works at a large university, in a faculty that has a large number of affluent graduates. Her lament was that funds were going to "naming this wing" or "supporting that special project", but the basic infrastructure of the department, the tools that the students use and the ability of administrators to efficiently do their work, was woefully underfunded. Her phrase was, "we don't see a dime".
It's easier to fundraise when you can sell the naming rights or have a sexy special project, but fundraisers do their organizations a disservice if they also don't have a strong Case for support for all aspects of their organizations. I know first-hand that unallocated funds are hard to raise, but if the only thing the prospective donor is aware of is the hot new project then my friend and her department ultimately suffer.
And if that's the case the donor really isn't right, even if it's not their fault.
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