Future Fundraising

👋 Hey everyone. It's a Friday in late-October. Year end fundraising season is kicking into high gear and there's an election (in the US) in 11 days. If you're feeling some anxiety you're justified and in good company. 😰

Thanks to our newest subscribers–Agatha, Max, and Sarah–for joining us here. Click reply if you have any questions or suggestions. And, as always, it does wonders when you share the newsletter or articles with colleagues and friends.

Is one way large scale fundraising a generational relic?

Small email or online donors are almost never asked why they give. We just keep asking them to give and hoping they will.

We survey subscribers and donors looking for insights. And we certainly use consumer, political, and economic data (and increasingly AI) to drill down on someone's interests in hopes of dislodging a donation.

But rarely are organizations with more than a couple thousand people on the email list built for (or interested in) relationships with subscribers. Geographic relevance helps: local and state organizations can hold events. And really any organization can run online conversations, webinars, livestreams.

We have a whole fundraising and nonprofit complex of organizations, consultants, staff, plans, and practices that is built around efficiency, scale, and technical optimization. We build for anxiety, extraction, and immediacy. People want impact, of course, and to know that their gift is being used wisely.

I'll posit, however, that what people want more than anything right now is a collective and hopeful plan for a future that they and their children can contribute to and thrive in over time.

I don't know how much of it I will see come to fruition but I'm optimistic that younger donors (and fundraisers) will approach technology as a tool for collective impact and not just a way to do double down on transactional efficiency.

We won't change the world by ridding fundraisers of busy work. But we may change it by giving people tangible reasons, tools, and pathways for turning a better vision into reality.

A lot of nonprofit fundraising wisdom is based on decades dominated by direct mail and email. Those are mostly one way broadcast channels. And pretty transactional ones at that. They're all gift and no giver.

A lot of giving before direct mail was more collective. We had membership groups, unions, clubs. We gathered. We passed the hat. People saw each other give.

Social, chat groups, livestream fundraisers, giving walls...giving now can be very visible and collective. And I think people under 50ish (millenials, gen z, etc.) see that as more of a norm.

All this isn't about direct mail and email being bad for fundraising. Hardly. They're great. But done in isolation they isolate people who see giving not as a transactional fee for service but as collective identity.

Maybe now we can have the scale of direct response/digital with a collective/shared experience. Maybe.

Bright Ideas ☀️

Smart people. Big questions.

1/ In Why Incredible Code Isn't Enough New Public's Josh Kramer talks to journalism product creator (my label, not his) Ben Werdmuller about his experience, values, and what AI/tech these days means for journalism and community. I think it's useful for all kinds of nonprofits and campaigns that are thinking about how content, story, and social relate to belonging, identity, and even fundraising.

And one of the principles of product design is really to go out and figure out: Who are the people that you are trying to help? Because the other fallacy is that people will say, “this is for everyone,” and, in doing so, they build a product that’s useful for nobody because they don’t have a really strong sense of what people’s needs actually are. There’s no defined user.

2/ The AI conversation is all about doing more, creating more, and being more efficient. But, as Velislava Hillman and Peter G. Kirchschläger write in The Age of Hypertrophy, "...abundance doesn’t automatically create meaning or have purpose. A million AI-generated novels don’t create a million readers; infinite information doesn’t produce infinite attention." [Tech Policy Press]

3/ "...we make the world and could just as easily make it differently. Tools were meant to be a practical place to start." What Is a ‘Responsibly Limited Tool’ in the Age of AI? Justin McGuirk looks into the relevance of Ivan Illich's writing on being human in the age of machines (or AI as it is now). [Los Angeles Review of Books]

4/ Well funded narratives do shape reality: The hidden history of how Big Oil invented the American Dream by Kate Yoder. [Grist]

5/ Team Dynamics Weaken When Employees Turn to AI Instead of Colleagues in Harvard Business Review. Turning to AI instead of colleagues (or oneself) to problem solve is more symptom than disease. Too often organizations lack the team norms and psychological safety that make collaboration and partnership desirable. If it's not safe to ask questions of teammates then who wouldn't rather talk to a bot? [via Ben Werdmuller]

6/ Narrative Engagement Across Difference is a useful collection of short case studies on how counter narratives shift perception and get people listening (if not engaging) when they don't agree. [via Julia Roig at The Horizons Project]

Events and Training

• Project C is hosting Is Indie Journalism Right for Me? Layoff Season Edition on November 11th. This is a solid set of pros sharing honest experiences.
• Any chance you'll be fundraising in November or December? Want to get your team and supporters involved? Join How Do I Ask My Friends to Give? on November 17th to learn about turning a network into collective fundraising power. [Donor Organizer Hub]

Want to get your event or training out to the Future Community network? We're happy to share. Click reply and make sure we know about it.

Future Community Jobs

A few cool new jobs. Get a full list on Tuesday or check the always updated Future Community job list.

• Senior Communications Officer : California Ocean Science Trust [Remote in California] ⏱️ November 15
• CEO : 38 Degrees [Remote in the UK] ⏱️ November 8
• Digital Operations Associate : Earthjustice [Remote in the US] ⏱️ October 30
• Major Gift Manager : Wild Montana [Remote in Montana] ⏱️ November 30
• Director of Finance and Accounting : Pocketbook Strategies [Remote in the US]

Hi. I'm Ted Fickes. I run Bright+3 where we help teams in progressive spaces create content and stories that build community so that organizations turn supporters into leaders. I also write Future Community (this newsletter) and run Future Community Jobs.