Announcing the September Giving Carnival: Predicting the Future of Fundraising
Hey kids, I’m happy to announce the Giving Carnival is coming to this little blog in September! In addition to the usual line-up of rusty midway rides, fresh-scrubbed 4H kids and queer circus freaks, I’ll be featuring a collection of links to all submitted blog posts and comments on the topic of “Predicting the Future of Fundraising.”Building off one of this blog’s most popular past articles, I invite you to take a trip with me 10 years into the future. How will the fundraising profession look like a decade from now? How have some of today’s biggest trends such as Internet technology, social entrepreneurialism and globalization changed our jobs? From the tax code to global warming, how has the environment in which we operate changed? Has the much predicted pending leadership crisis occurred, and if so, what has been the impact?
I’ll make sure the popcorn is fresh, but if you can forward this announcement to your friends or post an announcement on your blog, I’d be very grateful. When it comes to the Carnival, the more the merrier. This is a great way for us to build a little community between all the various fundraising and giving blogs and individuals online.
To participate, simply post your predictions to your blog and send me link at gayle[at]gayleroberts[dot]com. If you don’t have a blog, please add your forecast to the comment field below. All submissions will be featured in the September Giving Carnival round-up.
Deadline for submission is Tuesday, September 4th.
Labels: Blogs
6 Comments:
If current trends are any indicator, the future of giving will be all about the donor.
Fundraisers will deploy scanning devices that identify the best ways to appeal to the donors big ego and small primate brain.
Small towns, entire forests, and one of the Great Lakes will be offered up to the highest bidder for naming rights.
Architects of hospitals and universities will have to accomodate larger and larger spaces for signs naming the donors.
The facade of cause related marketing will vanish as we embrace the a new era of marketing related marketing and pander to anyone with cash.
We will not flinch as we accept donations from purveyors of guns, drugs, cigarettes, and environmental destruction.
We will get Ph.d's and advanced certification in fundraising, Donorology, and Ka-Ching! at our local community colleges and on-line.
Fundraisers will be rated on-line and paid according.
Large national organizations will have over 1 billion paying "members" but service them with a $30 a month donor relations web-application called Spiggle.
There will be a reality TV show that has professional fundraisers in Talbot's suits compete to raise funds for a clinic in Africa.
Harvard will buy the moon as part of the worlds largest capital campaign.
The retention rate for nonprofit development staff will go from 3 years in 2007 to 1 year by 2012.
In 2115, India will be the leader in outsourcing development staff to the United States.
The United Way will only be known as garage band in Sacramento.
Perhaps calling this the Giving "Carnival" was more prophetic than originally imagined? Thanks for the contribution!
The crystal ball fell off the mantelpiece while I was dusting, so doubtless what follows will include some significant inaccuracies; but it may be that in the course of the next ten years fundraisers and agencies soliciting donations will rethink the current stance holding unethical the practice of having fundraisers compensated by a percentage of the what they raise. Lawyers work on retainer all the time; why not fundraisers? As with lawyers, it's a way to give access to agencies otherwise lacking the financial wherewithal to hire professional assistance--not to mention a way to enforce productivity on the part of the professionals! And though there's certainly a potential for conflict of interest between the fundraiser and the client agency, mere potential has never been worth much to the positive or negative side. If ethical people use retainers, work done on retainer will be done ethically. Whether or not such a change is likely, it's one that should be contemplated and encouraged. And it probably will be: the more nonprofits erupt like pimples on the body politic, the more demand there will be for pay-for-performance fundraising by honest practitioners. Or, as it is written, "If raising money on commission is considered sleazy, only the sleazy will raise money on commission." (Somehow the "If gun ownership is criminal . . ." version of this flows better).
What else?--Ten years from now people will understand that technology does not, in fact, make a fundamental difference in the amount of money donated or in who wins the money-donation sweepstakes. Except insofar as technology can be used to tell--clearly and persuasively--the story of a nonprofit seeking support, "cyber-charity" is essentially a figment of geeks' imagination (though certainly geeks who made lots of money can have an impact by giving it away). The spread of information technology is very important, as was the invention of the printing press. But would anyone really claim that charity was fundamentally reshaped because people could give alms by writing their promises to pay on printed forms? By the same token, it may be marginally more convenient for generous people to use PayPal in their giving but that doesn't mean the existence of donation icons will create generosity. A little perspective here, people!
Finally, God willing and the creek don't rise (though the latter's unlikely, come to think of it, given global warming), the Democrats will get and stay in power long enough to restore the estate tax and increase the required foundation distribution from 5 to 7.5% (if not to 10%). It's amazing how public power can influence the behavior of private parties.
Of course if the Democrats do manage to regain power--and, more important, control of the public conversation about our economy's winners and losers--we might actually return to a society in which essential public tasks are performed by public agencies and private nonprofits supplement and complement government labors instead of being expected to replace them. And wouldn't that be a brave new world?
Dear Gayle,
In follow up to my e-mail, my entry, "Trends in Philanthropy: Predicting the Future of Nonprofit Fundraising," can be found here: http://thenewjew.wordpress.com/2007/09/04/trends-in-philanthropy-predicting-the-future-of-nonprofit-fundraising/.
Many thanks,
Maya Norton
The New Jew: Blogging Jewish Philanthropy
www.TheNewJew.wordpress.com
Thanks for hosting. Here's GiveWell's submission: http://blog.givewell.net/?p=138
I am looking for online jobs in Africa and i reached to your site. It's containing really having a good information. thanks for sharing.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home