The Grass is Always Greener… eh?
Nick Fellers | March 9, 2010
I hear the following:
From colleges: It’s a hard case, we charge $35K annually and we have an endowment. People think we have all the money we need.
From everyone else: It’s not like we’re a college with years of alumni relations.
From the ‘biggies’ (who shall go nameless): We need more brand awareness. That’s how Susan Kohmen does it.
From everyone else: It’s not like we’re [insert biggie name].
From the small, nimble start-up: We’re not the big guy, we don’t have all the big guns on our board.
From the big guys: We can’t go talk to XYZ. That’s [insert red tape reason].
From everyone that doesn’t deal with kids: Kids are sexy and sell, we don’t have that. How are we supposed to compete?
From the kids orgs: Putting a cute kid on a poster is not enough, people really get after us about our measurement… how are we supposed to compute all the numbers? We’re not transactional, we deal more with emotion and subtle things that change lives.
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Bob Price - March 9th, 2010 10:21 am
Thank you for sharing this. I have been one of those “Grass is always greener…” guys. No more excusses for me! I just need to get out there and visit, and ask, and share my story. I’ll get started on it tomorrow.
No seriously, we need this kick in the pants and the realization that we all have a tough job to do and we just need to do it!
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Nick Fellers - March 9th, 2010 10:26 am
Bob – knowing you…. knowing your mission… you’ve self-diagnosed. The flip side is to think about how others might see your proverbial lawn. In your case – you deal with the elderly… who can’t relate to that? Lord willing, everyone grows old.
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Mazarine - March 11th, 2010 2:10 pm
Well, having worked with many different kinds of nonprofits, it really is easier to fundraise with children as a cause.
But you’re right of course, people just need to get over their fears and start asking for advice and asking for money.
http://wildwomanfundraising.com
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