Here’s something you can do to start changing the culture around you, right now.
Let me repeat: People want to give.
It’s always worth revisiting this fundamental truth. It makes the work of inviting investment so much easier (and an entirely different proposition than “fundraising” from the reluctant).
Here’s what made this so vivid to me …
Some years ago, I created a tiny private seminar for six folks who were in my inner circle of workshop alums. I invited behavioral psychologist Dr. Aryeh Nesher to come from New York City to teach us what we could apply to philanthropy from what he’d learned from selling diamonds and Ferraris. He began by telling us,
In business, we say, “A customer wants to buy, but he doesn’t want to be sold. So help him buy.” In fundraising we can say, “A donor wants to give, but he doesn’t want to be solicited. So help him give.”
It’s so obvious, once stated. But it changes everything, doesn’t it?
This idea — that people want to give — is fundamental to all other principles in this field.
Our first job is to remember this truth, rather than think we have to convince anyone against their will.
In fact, it’s quite the opposite of how many people think: Instead of wearing someone down, we want to strengthen their will, their sense of personal power and efficacy. That’s the key that will move them from wanting to give to actually doing so.
Whether in casual conversation or in a formal meeting, it’s useful to carry with us this basic idea. If all we do is shift the monologue in our own minds, we’ve gone a long way to treating the person differently.
Better yet, when we reframe the dialogue based on knowing that people want to give, that perspective spreads informally and organically, one conversation at a time.
That’s something you can do to start changing the culture around you, right now.