Addressing Unattainable Finish Lines
The Development team was leaving my office on a high note. Tracking ahead of schedule. Meeting multiple deadlines. Exceeding goals. In fact, last week's fundraising event had shattered all records. In an hour we would be heading out to lunch to celebrate the accomplishments.
Once they exited, I closed the door. Sitting back down behind my desk. I slumped in my chair. Alone with this thought, "How on earth are we going to keep this momentum going?"
Don't get me wrong. The formula we were following was working:
Most of the time---including this time---the formula got us all over the finish line. Almost with a linear predictability.
But after crossing the finish line, the linear always seemed to loop back on itself. There was always another task to complete. One more goal to meet. The next campaign to begin. Yet another donor to reach out to before calling it a day.
Is there ever a finish line in fundraising?
I knew the answer. So does every other Development professional behind closed doors. Sitting slumped behind their desks. Alone with their thoughts.
Should our cause require more than a here-today-and-gone-tomorrow appeal to donors, we know that, in reality, there is no end in sight. The linear is constantly collapsing backwards. And we can find ourselves caught in that dreaded loop...that numbing cycle.
Dwelling on this scenario drains any depleted momentum left in our reserves. Unresolved, the anxiety regarding an unattainable finish line looms in the foreground. Lingers in the background. Development fatigue settles in, and we find ourselves...
This monotony so engrained, we could do the job in our sleep. Heaven help us...are we sleep-walking through all this?
Probably so.
But there's hope. The reality of an unattainable finish line that Development professionals find themselves subject to---and its associated conflicted equilibrium, mental exhaustion and burnout--- is not without remedy.
Thankfully, there are adjustments we can make. New ground we can break. Fresh paths we can take. For your sake. For my sake. For the nonprofit's sake.
For example...
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BE ALERT TO MOMENTS, NOT JUST MOMENTUM
To arrest fixation on "keeping up the momentum," a counter-intuitive approach is helpful. As Development professionals laser-focused on completing 1-year, 3-year and 5-year fundraising goals, why don't we periodically pause, and divert the attention elsewhere---staying alert to the moments of this day, this week at hand, and this month not yet spent?
Staying alert to these possibilities...
This afternoon's phone call could provide an opportunity to broach the legacy gift request. That end-of-the-week appointment across town might yield an introduction to several new prospective funders. Our nonprofit's Board will make the decision at their meeting this month---and then we'll have clarification about the capital campaign plans.
But isn't measuring momentum a nonnegotiable in fundraising ventures? Granted, with eyes wide open, we are upping our stride into the long-term future---moving far ahead and beyond on purpose. And yes, we are assessing the pace of our present progress with hindsight---making comparisons with past performance. But we'll be the wiser and calmer by taking nothing for granted "right now." Assuming nothing. Knowing that nothing is settled until this day, this week and this month has its say. In its own way.
EXPLORE OPEN-ENDEDNESS INSTEAD OF NO-END-IN-SIGHT
Adopting an alternative algorithm will help us break out of the no-end-in-sight dreaded loop. It will help us reconfigure perceived restraints of our development work by casting it in a larger, much broader context. Giving us space to replace the anxiety of never crossing an unattainable finish line with the freedom of open-endedness. Cultivating a healthy respect for the random contours, bends and veers of fundraising. For randomness is ever unfolding before us. Even pulling us into its alternate centripetal forces. If we explore in that direction.
What will we discover in this open-endedness?
Dismissed no longer, even that erratic experience with Foundation A, the odd encounter with Philanthropist B, or the engagement with Donor C's eccentric ways are now worthwhile and worth our attention. We can glean much about the psychologies, preoccupations and peculiarities of giving institutions and individuals from these unconventional episodes. We can gain unexpected insights into fresh ways of serving even these supporters. Discovering in the process, that in spite of elusive endings, there are no dead-ends in the vocational journey of a fundraising, development or advancement professional.
CHOOSE VARIETY OVER MONOTONY
Do any of our day-in and day-out routines feed this frustration of an unattainable finish line? If so, certain elements in our modus operandi may need tweaking. Nothing drastic or dramatic demanded here.
Even a subtle change of mindset will enable us to escape the onset of monotony. Even the minutest of adjustments can stir us out of the lull. Those said routines can be far from mundane, if we process them in a more fluid, less rigid way.
After all, there are thousands upon thousands of variations on the theme of generosity, just coursing under and above our development radars. Why not tune into those frequencies as we handle the facts, figures and functions of our jobs?
This stance keeps us sensitive to philanthropy's flux and flow. This perspective affirms that acts of goodwill are never static---so our responses to supporters should never be fixed or final. From this vantage point we survey that times are changing, and so too are the aims of donors. Learning to finesse along with them makes for adventures a plenty.
Where did this hour go?
The Development team is waiting for me to join them for lunch. To celebrate accomplishments. Which, the more I think about it, were all attained by staying alert to the moment, not just momentum. Exploring open-endedness instead of no-end-in-sight. Choosing variety over monotony.
Which makes my straining for and stressing out about that unattainable finish line perhaps a moot issue. At least for now.