Comments on: The Magic Moment In Fundraising http://www.theagitator.net/communications/the-magic-moment-in-fundraising/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-magic-moment-in-fundraising Fundraising and advocacy strategies. Trends, tips ... with an edge Mon, 21 May 2012 15:58:46 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Eric Foley http://www.theagitator.net/communications/the-magic-moment-in-fundraising/comment-page-1/#comment-26937 Eric Foley Wed, 23 Jun 2010 04:28:00 +0000 http://www.theagitator.net/?p=1469#comment-26937 Tom, I am so passionately in agreement with Green's sentiment that the "magic moment" in fundraising is when the audience stops being an audience. But what Green goes on to describe is something short of total involvement and total engagement: What he describes is great copy writing, no doubt. But even an enraptured audience... ...is still an audience. In real fundraising magic, the donor becomes part of the story. Literally. Think of Habitat For Humanity. The engagement doesn't come from the donor being able to smell the sawdust as they read the mesmerizingly moving appeal for funds. It comes from Habitat stuffing a hammer into your chest and challenging you to build a home, because we each have a personal say in making sure no one goes homeless in our sphere of influence. That's why Habitat is one of the fastest growing and most recession-proof charities of our time. When the donor is transformed into the actor and the nonprofit is transformed into the platform for action--when, in other words, the donor smells like sawdust and doesn't just smell sawdust in his mind's nose, so to speak--that's when fundraising magic has happened. Tom, I am so passionately in agreement with Green’s sentiment that the “magic moment” in fundraising is when the audience stops being an audience. But what Green goes on to describe is something short of total involvement and total engagement:

What he describes is great copy writing, no doubt. But even an enraptured audience…

…is still an audience.

In real fundraising magic, the donor becomes part of the story. Literally.

Think of Habitat For Humanity. The engagement doesn’t come from the donor being able to smell the sawdust as they read the mesmerizingly moving appeal for funds. It comes from Habitat stuffing a hammer into your chest and challenging you to build a home, because we each have a personal say in making sure no one goes homeless in our sphere of influence.

That’s why Habitat is one of the fastest growing and most recession-proof charities of our time.

When the donor is transformed into the actor and the nonprofit is transformed into the platform for action–when, in other words, the donor smells like sawdust and doesn’t just smell sawdust in his mind’s nose, so to speak–that’s when fundraising magic has happened.

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