All too often I hear about an organisation taking on fundraisers, throwing them in the deep end and expecting miracles; alas, that’s a rarity.
Fundraisers need to learn the basics, they need to start from the ground up – this article on 101Fundraising nails it perfectly.
A reminder about making rice and similar fundamentals
Why once a year at least we should all revisit the basics of our trade
I remember being told, a while ago, that you don’t get to be a martial arts black belt by practicing 14,000 different moves, you get to be a black belt by practising just 14 moves, 1,000 times each. It’s nice advice. The secret to attaining the highest level of proficiency is that you don’t progress to mastering the next move until you’ve truly perfected the last. It’s an agreeable story that contains an important truth: to excel at any trade, craft or activity, you first must master the basics.
There are few things more tedious in any profession than a seasoned old codger banging on about how youngsters coming into the business nowadays don’t bother to learn the basics. So I won’t. What’s more, I’ll leave you to decide for yourself whether that’s a problem you should be worrying about on behalf of our profession, or not. But it might be timely and supportive as we enter a new year to refer some of those new to our profession to sources that might help them to master their chosen path. And to remind some of the others, the more experienced hands, that a refreshing visit to the old foundations is well worth undertaking, once each year at least.
Read the full article here
charitymattersnz.com 