'There may be something there that wasn't there before'
'There may be something there that wasn't there before'
The eleventh one
📓 Summer Reading Part 2: Donor fatigue. Why are we so tired?
Welcome back, y’all! After a remarkable birthday celebration, I'm excited to dive into part 2 of our summer reading series.
If you’re new here (welcome 🤗), I’m spending the summer diving deeper into the origins of philanthropy and generosity. In part 1, we talked about the meaning of these words and how they’ve changed throughout history. I shared a story about a moment of connection and camaraderie in high school that helped me better understand what it truly means to be generous. This week we'll explore how these ideas and practices show up in today's world—zooming in on two key issues: blind impact and organizational corruption (dun dun dunnnn). Let’s get into it!
When Smile On Me crowdfunded for our first summer camp, it was by far the largest amount I’d ever tried to raise in a single campaign—$50,000 to be exact. It was exciting building out the campaign, finding unique incentives and names for each donation level, working with the girls to make an engaging video, and putting all the creative elements together. But once it launched, I felt immediate anxiety.
Our donor pool was the same group I’d been reaching out to since day one, and because our organization was so small (basically just me), about 90% of the donors were people I knew personally (which was both a good and bad thing). BTW this fundraiser launched in 2021 during the height of the pandemic, when many people had lost their jobs (including me) or seen their incomes drop—a wild time to ask people for money. Long story short, we surpassed our goal and got to host our summer camp—but it wasn’t easy and I could tell people were feeling overwhelmed and frankly tired of being asked to donate (as much as I was tired of asking).
Have you ever felt overwhelmed or hesitant to donate because of constant requests from multiple charities?
What do you believe contributes most to this feeling of donor fatigue?
The two reasons why I think we’ve become so tired of donating to charities are first, the need is so great that we don’t think our little $20 is actually going to make a difference, and second, we simply don’t trust the charity.
Let’s tackle the latter. There’s widespread concern about organizations mishandling funds or not using them as promised. And let’s be honest, tracking where your donation actually goes can be difficult, especially with larger organizations. With Smile On Me, it was easier. You donated $20 to buy a girl a sleeping bag for camp, and boom, that individual girl got her sleeping bag. The impact was immediate and on a one-to-one basis. However, this level of transparency and direct impact is not typical for most charities, nor is it scalable (although that would be amazing). So, you need to think about the type of impact you want to make and the results you want to see. (This ties back to the Gospel of Wealth—I will never stop referring to this column 😏 —and its call for thoughtful giving).
One organization I support and believe is excellent at showing how my donation makes a difference is Compassion. I sponsor two children across the globe, and I regularly receive written letters from them, as well as constant updates via email about how they’re doing. While I can't be 100% sure that my $40 a month directly reaches them, I trust the organization and feel their mission aligns with my values.
#CommercialBreak: Are you reading this on Substack? Check out my notes section, where I've listed a few of my favorite things. Hint: one of my favorite things will be the topic of my next personal column 👀
Ok, story time!
//Running the Smile On Me summer camp was the highlight of my journey as an entrepreneur. I always wanted to do something like this since I think I was in middle school. It was a dream of mine to run a girls summer camp. And despite all the ups and downs of crowdfunding, I still can't believe we pulled it off. When the girls arrived at the camp, settled into their cabins, opened their hygiene kits, and put on their camp t-shirts, it was so incredibly gratifying to see how every single dollar [we raised] was directly benefiting them. It was a unique experience to witness firsthand the profound impact of generosity. And I was so lucky to be able to witness that, being the sole entrepreneur of this small organization and I saw how important it was to invest in our small but mighty donor pool.//
So when it comes to navigating inevitable donor fatigue, I encourage you to support organizations that align with your values and that you trust, decide what kind of difference you want to make through your donation, and most importantly, practice generosity in your daily life. Recently, I shared my dad's story about how witnessing someone ask for a few dollars at a McDonald's helped transform his generosity practices. While we can't always influence how innovative an organization is in engaging donors (which was a challenge for Smile On Me), nor can we always track every step of our donation's impact, we can carefully consider how we invest our resources and through that find reassurance and renewed energy when fatigue sets in.
So, now what? What do we do with this information today? Remember, the goal of Everyday Ribbons is to take you on a journey to reinvent your practice of generosity. These insights can guide us through donor fatigue and address inevitable concerns about corruption. Let's draw inspiration from these findings to not only practice generosity but to embody it fully. 💙
👉🏽Up next: We’ll explore the African philosophies of Ubuntu and Harambee and do a case study on the evolution of the word "woke" (that’ll be a fun one).
👋 Our final stop: We’ll delve into the nuanced difference between definition and meaning, unraveling the complexities of language and communication.
—you’ll notice I use the word ‘so’ quite often. you’ll also most likely notice bad grammar and the overuse of commas and punctuation in my writing—so yea
Well done, very interesting! I personally find myself experiencing giving fatigue due to the updates. I wonder if you have any thoughts about that. I think I’m somewhat of a detached giver. For example, one of the missionary families we support asked if we’d like to be added to their list of visits to discuss how their ministry is doing. I respectively declined. My philosophy is that if I’m giving to something, I don’t really need to know what’s going on all the time. I’ll let the recipient of the gift loop me in on things of utmost importance. I feel as if the pressure to constantly update and providing moving stories can be exhausting to the people doing the work. Usually the type of charities I support have very long term goals that might not take root in my lifetime. That could be why k prefer a detached relationship from the causes I support. I trust the work is being done and I don’t want to burden the people doing the hard work with expectations of frequent big picture ah ha moments. Anyway, good job getting me to think more deeply about this topic!
After reading your post, I got to thinking about why I don't give on a regular basis. There are organizations, I feel, are doing the work that is very much needed. I want to give on a regular basis because I know that my giving will help. It's the hesitation and procrastination that stand in my way. My goal is to become a consistent giver and being a part of your organization may be the inspiration I need to fulfill my goal. Thanks Dre.