I’ve been doing lots of interviews with donors recently, and gosh do they some of the darndest things. 🙂 I have two donor stories that I just can’t resist sharing this week (today and Thursday) with DonorDreams blog subscribers.
Enjoy!
As I walk down the driveway of an 80-something-year-old donor, he starts sharing a story with me about a skunk that appeared in his very nice and upscale neighborhood.
One morning while walking down the driveway to get the newspaper for his wife, he observed a skunk walking in circles and making its way down the street towards his house. As the skunk got closer and closer, this donor realized it accidentally had gotten its head stuck in a plastic soda cup, and it was circling and weaving around because it was disoriented and couldn’t see where it was going.
Not knowing what to do, this donor called the police department and asked for help.
As you can probably imagine, neighbors came out of their homes to see what was happening. Additionally, people driving by pulled over to investigate what all the commotion was about.
One of the people who had pulled over, asked the donor what was going on. After explaining the situation to her, she simply asked:
“Why hasn’t anyone here just walked up to the skunk and pulled the cup off of its head?”
Of course, no one had wanted to get sprayed by the skunk, and in the case of our 80-something-year-old donor he didn’t move very well anymore.
Sensing that no one was willing or able to do what was necessary, this lady walked up to the distressed animal, grabbed the cup and shook it gently until it came off of the skunk’s head. No one got sprayed, and the skunk ran for cover under the nearest bush.
With nothing left to look at, everyone went along on their merry way.
Problem solved . . . thanks to one lady who had the courage to step up and do what was obvious to everyone.
As I approached the end of the driveway with the donor and the skunk story came to an end, I couldn’t help but ask “Is there a moral to the story?
Which of course there was . . . he simply smiled and said:
“Do what you can do!”
As I drove away, I couldn’t help but smile. This donor had just summed up the entire interview that took me an hour or two to complete in a matter of a few minutes. In fact, he summed up so much more including the mantra for your agency’s:
- resource development program
- programming
- volunteer efforts
- special projects
- board engagement
As you organization runs around your community talking about needs and the case for support, there will be lots of people who just stand there looking at you like that skunk. They will be paralyzed and unwilling to step up to do what is obviously necessary.
You need to keep in mind that it isn’t your job to convert these people. That is hard work and likely going to be a waste of time. Instead, it is your job to find the few people who are willing to do what is necessary.
Have you ever walked away from a conversation with a donor with a fun story that invoked an epiphany related to your non-profit work? If so, please use the space below and share it with the rest of the world.
Here’s to your health!
Erik Anderson
Founder & President, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC
www.thehealthynonprofit.com
erik@thehealthynonprofit.com
http://twitter.com/#!/eanderson847
http://www.facebook.com/eanderson847
http://www.linkedin.com/in/erikanderson847
Loved the skunk story! Thanks for sharing.
Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2014 18:11:28 +0000 To: dhabun@msn.com
This is a fun story to read. Very meaningful. I plan to share with other staff.
Thanks, Becky! It was a fun story to tell and I totally agree that it is one that needs to be shared with all sorts of organizational stakeholders because the moral to the story is applicable to so many different things. Have fun retelling it! 🙂