How to Be Happier and More Productive at Your Nonprofit Fundraising Job

One of the keynote speeches I regularly give as I travel the country is called Happiness, Habits, and Nonprofit Fundraising: Strategies to Survive and Thrive. I developed this speech because I encounter so many unhappy fundraisers.

Sadly, many development professionals are miserable at work. And that’s a real shame, because you didn’t get into this line of work for a big paycheck. You probably work in the nonprofit sector to do good in the world, which should — in theory — bring you some measure of happiness.

3 Ways to be Happier and More Productive at Your Nonprofit

So, how can you be genuinely happier at your nonprofit work, and more productive to boot?

1. Celebrate success.

Celebrate success large and small. The most important thing you can do is to stop focusing on the negative and bring more attention to what’s going well.

When fundraising is not going as well as one hoped, it’s natural to focus on what you didn’t raise. Instead, focus on what you did raise! Every time you call a donor, give yourself a gold star. After 10 gold stars, get yourself a latte. Don’t wait for that big gift to come in to celebrate.

2. Change your attitude.

As Henry Ford famously said…

Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right.

If you think you can’t raise money — you won’t. Your beliefs become self-fulfilling prophesies. For example, if you think you can’t raise money, then why bother calling donors anyway? After all, they probably won’t pick up the phone.

On the other hand, if you believe you can raise money, your actions will reflect that. Instead of asking donors, “do you want to meet?” you’ll ask, “when can we meet?” Rather than assuming they don’t want to meet, the assumption is that they want to meet and it’s simply a matter of when.

3. Practice gratitude.

It turns out that giving thanks is not only good for your donors, but it is good for you too. A professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania did a study that showed that people who expressed sincere gratitude were significantly happier than prior to when they showed gratitude.

Become a Happiness Ambassador

Many fundraisers (including board members and others) operate under the assumption that donors don’t want to give and fundraisers are there to “take” their money. Consider these words:

• twisting arms
• begging
• guilting people to give

We’ve all heard those terms before. Is it any wonder so many of us think donors don’t want to give?

However, a working paper that came out of Harvard Business school showed that giving to charity actually makes people happier. Think about that for just a moment. Giving makes people happier.

So, by asking people to give, you are actually providing them with an opportunity to be happier! Your job is to go around making people happy. In other words, you are a happiness ambassador!

If that’s the case, people will be thrilled to see you. After all, you are doing good in the world, and proving them with an opportunity to get involved and help. Try putting Happiness Ambassador as you job title on your business card and see how many meetings you get!

More Tips to be Happier and More Productive at Your Nonprofit

Click below to get a super-helpful downloadable checklist with 31 tips to improve yourself and your fundraising. These are small, incremental changes you can make each day.

31 Rules for Better Fundraising and a Better You »

What are some other ways you can improve your nonprofit job satisfaction? Leave your ideas in the comments below.