I often talk to Atlas’s international partners about fundraising and development, and the predictable refrain is “Yeah, but there is no culture of philanthropy in my country.” While that may be historically true, let’s shed this old way of thinking!
Instead of taking a static perspective on a dynamic situation, maybe it’s time to apply our understanding about “spontaneous order” to fundraising. (For those who are not familiar with “spontaneous order,” go to the Online Library of Liberty and search the term…and while you’re there, check out the amazing features of this wonderful site including the opportunity to request a complimentary copy of the 2009 Edition of the Portable Library of Liberty DVD which contains over 900 titles from the OLL.)
Let’s embrace the reality that the world is changing. We are no longer tied to the geographic community that physically defines us. Thanks to the internet, it’s a global world, not only for traditional goods and services, but for fundraising too.
I recently read about a nonprofit organization that was cited as having “The best online fundraising campaign.”
According to Philip King, Athletes for Africa has been around for only a few years, only has a few full-time staff, yet it’s raised literally millions of dollars online.
The organization touts an interesting advantage – it was born after the internet and has been built completely online. Consequently, its entire presentation, and attitude, is geared towards the internet visitor. Rather than trying to figure out how to translate its physical existence into a web presence, its entire existence is a web presence.
If you were starting your organization now and creating it entirely digital, what would you do differently?
The next time, one of our international partners feels discouraged because there’s no culture of philanthropy in his world, I’m thinking of posing that question in response.
Those of you who have heard me speak on fundraising know that I place a tremendous emphasis on Relationship Fundraising. I believe that we need to build relationships with people to build a strong donor community. My internet comments may seem to offer a contradiction to all this. Yet, nothing about social networking and internet fundraising contradicts the idea of relationship building.
Michael Johnston, the president of a nonprofit technology consultancy, recently delivered an eConference (of course) on International Fundraising. He urged participants to think about social media tools as a way of building community– starting a conversation, increasing trust and evoking feeling.
So perhaps it’s time to adjust our thinking, embrace spontaneous order, recognize that the world is changing, and revise our thoughts on community and relationship building. Building social networking into your fundraising efforts will not only help your thinking evolve, but it will also help you build relationships with today’s 20- and 30-somethings as they grow older!
To read more about Johnston’s thoughts on international fundraising, see Abny Santicola’s article in Fundraising Success at
No comments have been made on this post.