Kay Sprinkel Grace and the transformative power of fundraising

A fixture of San Francisco Bay Area and national fundraising for nearly three decades, Kay Sprinkel Grace gave the keynote address at the recent Craigslist Foundation Nonprofit Bootcamp training conference in San Francisco. Its now online as part of Stanford’s Social Innovations Conversations podcasts. Give yourself a little gift today and listen to this while you squeeze in lunch at your computer workstation.

For if you ask me, most people outside this field have an innate fear of fundraising because of the perception it is a difficult sales job. Most professional fundraisers I know have made peace with the work because they believe it isn't merely about raising money, but about raising donors.

But I don’t think either perspective fully describes the potential power of our work, or why I am attracted to it. Creating connections between people of means and people with needs, the inspired fundraiser is a change agent bringing together individuals and communities across lines of race, class, age, gender, ability, sexuality, geography and other artificial divisions. Fundraising has the ability to transform not only those who receive, but also those who give. To give is to receive, and in that moment there is the transformative potential to understand that what separates us is merely an illusion.

Fortunately, as fundraisers, we are not immune to the transformative power of this work. Like a martial art, if one practices fundraising long enough, it teaches one to move through the world with improved humility and grace. I for one still have much to learn, but it is a good path to be walking down.

Fortunately, there are those who have gone before us to help light the way. One of those is Kay Sprinkel Grace.