1. Do you have a billion and one things on your mind?

2. Is your way unclear?

3. Are the problems in your organization happening because other people and other departments messed up big time?

4. Do you and everyone else have long stories they can tell about everyone else and how all the chaos happened?

 

If you think this sounds like the beginning of a pharmaceutical ad, you are correct. You may be suffering from fundraising fever.

Everything is perfectly out of control , but that's ok.

 

Don’t worry, although it is contagious, I can guide you out of this place.

 

• To recap how you got here, you’ve focused on your mission statement as instructed by every consultant on the planet.

You’ve followed the proven techniques of market gurus and psychological experts who taught you how to reach the deepest level of the primordial human psyche to get strangers to feel so close to you that they naturally give with ease.

 

You’ve followed the guidance on tracking data and segmenting your donor database.

 

And throughout it all, you’ve followed best practices and procedures. It seemed like impossible work at the time, but you cleaned up the data, and it is pretty.

 

You’ve thanked your donors consistently in creative ways.

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Even though there have been times of frustration, you’ve tackled dilemmas of board participation, and your staff and volunteers have your back 100%.

 

You customize, test and analyze your communications and asks, and tweak them for optimum peak state to bring the donor bond to the next level.

 

When you began working for the betterment of the world, this is precisely what you imagined. Although you majored in the humanities, you have learned on the job what is equivalent to a human engineering degree. It feels unnatural.

 

You question why this level of structured order exists, but your workload is still unmanageable.

 

You realize it doesn’t make sense.

 

You’re right. It doesn’t. The majority don’t work within well-oiled machines and do not have the capacity to follow the best practices listed above.

 

You did not become an engineer for good reasons, and those reasons have not changed. You’re working late.

 

You don’t have time to delegate, and you’ve reached the point of accepting that everything is OK, because it’s entirely out of control.

 

Some of the best systems originate out of chaos. They organically or can be willfully guided and formed into beneficial systems.

 

Just when all the experts have human behavior mapped out to be so predictable is when the unruly shake the system and destabilize it.

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Just when all the experts have human behavior mapped out to be so predictable is when the unruly shake the system and destabilize it.

 

Find out what is working for your colleagues at other organizations. Keep an open mind.

 

Get into the eye of the storm early if only to get a close look. It’s the best position to be in momentarily when conditions are precarious and unpredictable.

 

Don't forget you need a guide sometimes . Not a sage on the stage, but an informed balanced view.

 

You need a guide.