Former Colleague O'ol's Observation Diary | The Secret of an Exceptional Fundraiser

Nothing below is a trade secret. Read on for fun.

"Hi, Secretary Chen. Do you know whether Chairman Wang has any time soon? I'd like to stop by and update him on what the JRF accomplished this year."
"Chairman Wang! It's Old Su. Got time for tea sometime soon?"

"Professor, it's Old Su! Is the painting you mentioned last time still available? I'd like to visit and take you out for something to eat."

When fundraising season approaches, this kind of gently persistent outreach means another year has passed. The point is to reconnect without overdoing it and let existing donors-and potential supporters who already follow the JRF-know that fundraising season has come around again.

If this were merely a job, I am not sure I could take it to this level.

Ultra-Personalized Fundraising: Know Your Donors

Our self-described "criminal-law practitioner" Old Su-Su Chien-Ho-is perhaps the most vivid way to explain judicial reform to corporate donors. Fundraising today is crowded: organizations compete for attention, channels multiply, donor gifts diversify, the work itself can be hard to explain, and even translating program outcomes into something supporters can immediately understand has become a challenge. A good fundraiser therefore steps back and asks who is most likely to give, how limited resources can produce the best return, what the organization's distinctive donor base looks like, and how economic conditions and donor preferences are changing. Those are questions every fundraising team is constantly studying.

Old Su's secret is not to obsess over becoming a social-media favorite. It is to keep cultivating trust with the people who already support the organization. Advocacy groups inevitably take positions on controversial issues, and media coverage can sometimes trigger doubts among donors. When that happens, the first question for an experienced fundraiser is which supporters may need a direct conversation before those doubts grow every time they turn on the television.

Skills Fundraising Teaches You

A fundraiser may need to understand not only a donor's interests, but also the style of different charity-sale items, the work and values of different artists, and which paintings will appeal to which supporters. Finding a fundraising path through all those choices is exactly the kind of thing Old Su has learned to do.

He uses his own time to visit exhibitions, look for artists whose work might fit, contact them about supporting judicial reform, study art and painting styles, personally select works, and build the artists' connection with the JRF. He then visits donors, recommends pieces suited to their tastes, and may even help adjust framing to match their interiors.

That level of care and customization is not simply the gift of gab associated with a strong salesperson. It comes from seeing opportunities from different angles, being willing to communicate from the other person's perspective, and translating the JRF's work into language that particular donors can understand.

Embrace Different Voices Without Losing Your Core

Not every donor can be retained forever. Some supporters will leave. That is part of the work. If the loss of one donor leaves an organization financially or emotionally unable to stand, the structure is unhealthy. While trying to increase donations, a fundraising team also has to watch for excessive concentration. And when support is lost, staff have to process it, recover, and move forward without allowing fundraising pressure to shake the organization's core values.

Facing the public and standing with people has always been central to NGO advocacy and fundraising. A fundraiser therefore has to make room for diverse voices while still knowing where the organization stands. That balance is a core professional value.