A Super-Powerful Question that Could Skyrocket Your Fundraising

Ask yourself the following question:

I recently read the book, “A More Beautiful Question” by Warren Berger, and the book asked some pretty powerful questions.

One of the questions was: “What if you could not fail?”

What would you do differently in your life, at your nonprofit, and for your fundraising efforts?

Would you try something new?

Would you do things the way you’ve always done them?

Think about that for just a second…

{Take a breath, and really think about it.}

Spinning Your Wheels without Momentum

You’ve probably heard the definition of insanity — that is, doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result.

Yet, so many fundraisers are scraping by, barely raising more each year, and yet, they continue to do the same things over and over.

Many of the most successful fundraising campaigns are taking place today, in part, because organizations are willing to try something new — and take a risk.

Every organization that has ever completed a successful capital campaign, at one time or another, embarked on their first capital campaign. Was it scary? Yes! But was it worth it? YES!

No longer a “new” campaign, but simply look to ChairtyWater and their birthday campaign, and their use of online videos for thanking donors. When I first saw what they were doing a few years back, it really took my breath away.

And what about all the nonprofits succeeding in the area of venture philanthropy (many are failing as well, to be sure). But the old expression applies: nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Just consider #GivingTuesday — only 3 years old, but raising millions for nonprofits around the world.

Suddenly, the Impossible Becomes Possible

Berger quotes Regina Dugan who says, “Suddenly, impossible things become possible.”

What a beautiful statement.

Just think of all the things we do and have, because someone had an idea, the courage and wherewithal to pursue it. Everything from the automobile, to the iPhone, to the internet, to antibiotics. They were all once simply ideas in someone’s head.

But what about failure?

The book goes on to ask: “If I fail, how will I recover?”

Of course, we live in the real world and the possibility for failure is very real, but failure is actually rarely as bad as the failure we imagine.

In the movie, Parental Guidance, the parents are leaving their kids with the grandparents (Bette Midler and Billy Crystal) for the weekend and the mother (Marissa Tomei) is hesitant to leave them.

The father asks her (I’m paraphrasing here), “What’s the worst thing that can happen?”

She responds: “They could all die!”

His reply: “Then anything short of that will be a miracle.” (Paraphrasing again, from memory.)

The point is this:

Failure is probably not as bad as you imagine.

This year, one of my clients is a battered women’s shelter. They’ve tried several different types of fundraising events over the years without much success.

Next year, they’re going out on a limb… Instead of a traditional golf outing or gala, they’re going to try something completely new. They’re going to hold an event where the donor gets to experience the life of a battered woman and her children. We’re going to do everything we can to make the experience visceral and emotional.

Will it work? They don’t know (and neither do I) but we’re going for it!

So, what would YOU do if you could not fail?