The Fundraising Talent Podcast
Business:Non-Profit
Today I enjoyed the opportunity to talk with best-selling author and 4x TED-speaker Margaret Heffernan about her new book Uncharted: How To Map the Future. Our conversation began with what she refers to as prediction addiction; our deep-seated need to predict the future. Throughout my fundraising career, I have observed this addiction to prediction playing out in our being hesitant to call a donor, running wealth screen reports as if they were credit checks, and criticizing each other’s forecasts of the effects of yet-to-be enacted tax legislation. It all stems from a desire to avoid what we fear the most: uncertainty.
As I shared with Margaret, there never seems to be a shortage of those in our space who will try to capitalize on our addiction. They will sell us anything that makes us feel more content in a world that is not deterministic. Heffernan calls this the commercialization of fantasy: “the belief that the future is knowable, that all life is susceptible to certain laws if we could only figure out what they were, and that there are some special people or processes that can reveal what the future holds.“
As always, we are grateful to OneCause for being our sponsor. And if you’d like more information about Responsive’s training programs, email me at jason@responsivefundraising.com
#166 | Student Project, Part 2 | What does non-profit leadership look like for women around the globe?
#165 | Student Project, Part 1 | What does non-profit leadership look like for women around the globe?
#164 | Should beneficiaries have more say in how their stories are told in our fundraising efforts?
#163 | Does fundraising really want to get back to business as usual?
#162 | How do fundraising professionals make the best of difficult times?
#161 | Should someone's past prohibit them from participating in philanthropy?
#160 | How does a nonprofit organization decide which charitable gifts it will receive versus those it will reject?
#159 | What impact will the recent pandemic have on fundraising practices a year from now?
#158 | What important lessons have fundraising professionals learned during the pandemic?
#157 | How are HBCU schools ensuring that they recieve their fair share of the philanthropic pie?
#156 | How has Covid-19 affected fundraising for international organizations? Part 6: AFP Toronto Collaboration
#155 | What advice are we getting tired of hearing from fundraising consultants? Guest: David Baker @ Giving Design
#154 | Will Covid-19 remedy some of the bad fundraising habits that we have been ignoring?
#153 | Will hostility towards our donors really help our fundraising efforts?
#152 | How has Covid-19 affected fundraising for environmental organizations? Part 5: AFP Toronto Collaboration
#151 | Will Covid-19 require that nonprofits reinvent themselves, their boards, and their fundraising efforts?
#150 | How has Covid-19 affected fundraising for educational organizations? Part 4: AFP Toronto Collaboration
#149 | How has Covid-19 affected fundraising for arts organizations? Part 3: AFP Toronto Collaboration
#148 | How has Covid-19 affected fundraising for healthcare organizations? Part 2: AFP Toronto Collaboration
#147 | What can fundraising professionals expect of technology in a post-Covid-19 world?
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