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
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261 | Should I work for a boss who won’t invest in their own professional development?
260 | What happens when “warm glow” fundraising plateaus?
259 | Has your boss demonstrated their willingness to invest in fundraising?
258 | Is the talk of decolonizing philanthropy misdirecting our attention?
257 | How much of fundraising’s pre-pandemic playbook are we throwing out?
256 | Fundraisers, is that really your story to tell?
255 | What could fundraisers achieve if they took the indirect route?
254 | Do the guardians of donor-centered fundraising have a bit of a PR problem?
253 | Was the pandemic an opportunity for fundraising to make some necessary changes?
252 | Did the pandemic teach fundraisers how to create perceived proximity?
251 | Will fundraising ever learn that the conversation is the work?
250 | Are nonprofits are ready for crypto-based fundraising?
249 | When it comes to fundraising, perhaps less can really mean more?
248 | How can nonprofit boards be bridges to smarter organizations?
247 | Should nonprofit fundraising aspire to be a more interdisciplinary endeavor?
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