Be generous and raise money

It bares repeating. There are three levels of fundraising: transactional, relationship and transformative.

Most people view fundraising as a simple market transaction. In exchange for your gift of $250 we will send a Water Buffalo to a Chinese family -- or not. Given the capitalist Kool-Aid our world has downed with gusto, it is no wonder this is fundraising for many. Donors as ATM machines.

Now if you ask, most professional fundraisers will tell you that "We raise relationships, not donors." But unfortunately, the majority of organizations fall short on the final important step of "ask, thank and include." Many staff I've met have little time or interest in engaging donors (let alone Board members) in their work beyond the minimum required to secure funding.

But there's a third level, transformative fundraising, that few recognize and fewer still reach. It build on the former two levels and adds to it. Yet it is clear that Anne Firth Murray, the Founding President of The Global Fund for Women, operated at this level. Reading her new book, Paradigm Found: Leading and Managing for Positive Social Change, makes me glad to say I'm a donor to this important organization. In it she writes:

"When we started The Global Fund for Women, I initially though that we were raising money for our simple and straight-forward reason: we were raising money for our program; we were raising money so we could give it away to women's groups around the world. But over time, raising money and working with donors revealed itself to be much more multifaceted and every bit as interesting as giving the funds away. We made what were learning part of our program. We began to speak of and think of "donor activists" and of blurring the distinctions between givers and receivers. We began to see that money, like leadership and power, grows when you give it away. Donors began to feel connected with The Global Fund and to initiate programs themselves. We weren't simply raising money to support our programs. We were offering people the opportunity to be giving, to be included, to have meaning in their lives. In became increasingly obvious over the years that be encouraging people to be more giving we were offering them empowerment and a sense of connection and inclusion."