Reflections on Generosity

"...Therefore one should not cease from planting. Rather, just as he found, one should still continue to plant even though he is old..."This week, I’m a story from Midrash Tanchuma Kedoshim 8:1, written sometime between 500 to 800 AD and published in 1885.Reflection question:How will you plant seeds for fund development programs, like legacy giving, that take longer to see the benefits?Reflection on quote:Recently, I have been assisting my clients with starting legacy programs; that is, encou...

"...In the same way, as you are unable to take care of all of your fellow people, treated as the luck of the draw when the time and circumstance brings some into closer contact with you than others." This week, I’m reading a quote from De Doctrina Christiana by Augustine, published in 397 AD.Reflection questions:Is there an area of your work where you need to step back and apply this framework: accepting our limits, focusing on what we can do, and releasing that which we can’t do or whom...

“Whoever practices charity and justice fills the world with loving kindness.”This week, I’m reading quotes from Sukkah 49b about tzedakah.Reflection questions:How are we giving donors that vision of repairing the world through their gifts?What are ways that we can practice tzedakah with donors? That is, practicing justice, peace, and loving kindness with donors instead of just receiving donations from donors?Reflection on the quote:This week, I’ve been reading about tzedakah, the Jewish...

"...that which is a hindrance is made a furtherance to an act; and that which is an obstacle on the road helps us on this road..."This week, I am reading a quote from Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, written around 171 AD.Reflection questions:Is there a response from a donor that you need to stop giving too much weight to and instead put it in its proper place, thank the donor, and continue with your good work?Reflection on quote:One of my clients got the letter this week. You know the letter....

"...When we have decided to accept, let us accept with cheerfulness, showing pleasure, and letting the giver see it, so that he or she may at once receive some return for their goodness..."This week, I am reading a quote from On Benefits by Seneca the Younger, published in 59 AD.Reflection Question:What is one thing you can do this week to let your donors know that you see their gifts and they are welcome to belong to your mission?Reflection on Quote:Seneca describes a number of attitudes tha...

"...When we have decided to accept, let us accept with cheerfulness, showing pleasure, and letting the giver see it, so that he or she may at once receive some return for their goodness..."This week, I am reading a quote from On Benefits by Seneca the Younger, published in 59 AD.Reflection Question:No matter the donor or the donor’s motivation, how are you and I receiving gifts? What is the attitude of our hearts?Reflection on Quote:When we look back over the last few months, what has been ou...

"...A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed...."This week, I’m reading a quote from the Jewish wisdom on generosity from Proverbs 11.Reflection questions:As you wait for donors to respond to a campaign, have you given to the mission you serve?How are you leading this week in your daily life with the intention of generosity in your own life?Reflection on Quote:A part of any campaign is the waiting. We wait for a donor to join us in that beautiful space ...

"...For with wisdom cometh patience, And with patience cometh rest..."This week, I am reading the poem The Hardest Time of All, by Sarah Doudney. Written in 1896.Reflection Questions:Where are you waiting for some major change to occur as a result of your work? Is it time to gain more wisdom or to be more patient or to stop and rest in that area?Will you take the time to document your hopes for change in the coming year and then schedule an email to send that reflection to yourself in a...

..."An association [nonprofit] is an educated and powerful body of citizens which cannot be twisted to any person's will or quietly trodden down,..." This week, I’m reading selected quotes from Democracy in America by Alexis De Tocqueville, published in 1835. Note. His use of the word association is our current word for nonprofit.Reflection questions:Are you getting caught up how national events affect the nonprofit you serve? Will you instead reflect on ways your nonprofit is imp...

"...the potentially world-changing and life-giving power that may be present in or working through the goodness of the donors' hearts and souls; if only someone would acknowledge it, call it forth, and nurture it!"This week, I am reading a quote from Growing Givers’ Hearts: Treating Fundraising as Ministry by Thomas Jeavons and Rebekah Burch Basinger. 2000 edition.Reflection questions:Where are there areas that we are failing to recognize the world-changing and life-giving power that resides ...

“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in which case, you fail by default.” JK RowlingThis week, I’m reading various quotes to reflect on how generosity covers our failures.Reflection question:Are we letting failure harden or shame us? Or, are we letting generosity cover our failures with the desire to keep trying? Reflection on Quotes:Last week, I talked about failure and how...

"...All that happens, happens right: you will find it so if you observe narrowly..."This week, I am reading a quote from Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, written around 171 AD.Reflection questions:When you have failed in your work recently, how are observing narrowly for the right things that came out of it?Are you seeking perfection or goodness in your fundraising activities?Reflection on the quote:In working with over 100 clients, it’s not surprising that I’m well-acquainted with failure as ...

..."And then with a cry from his soul despairing,He bowed him down to the earth and wept.But a voice cried aloud from the driving rain;“Arise, old man, and plant again!”This week, I’m reading a poem, Disappointed, written by Paul Laurence Dunbar, published in 1913.Reflection question:Is there an area of your work where you have been disappointment and you need to stop and weep before moving forward?Reflection on the quote:This week, something sad happened with a nonprofit in my community. Oft...

"...Life is so generous a giver, but we, judging its gifts by the covering,Cast them away as ugly, or heavy, or hard.Remove the covering and you will find beneath it a living splendor,Woven of love, by wisdom, with power..."This week, I’m reading a poem written by Greville MacDonald to his father George MacDonald in 1930.Reflection question:When will you take time to pause, wait, and look deeper to glimpse joy, beauty, and living splendor? Reflection on quote:In our work, it is easy to become...

"...To think and to will without doing, when there is opportunity, is like a flame enclosed in a vessel and goes out; also like seed cast upon the sand, which fails to grow, and so perishes with its power of germination. But to think and will and from that to do is like a flame that gives heat and light all around, or like a seed in the ground that grows up into a tree or flower and continues to live..."This week, I’m reading a quote that sums up Johnny Appleseed’s beliefs from Heaven and Hel...

"...The first and the simplest emotion which we discover in the human mind is curiosity..."This week, I’m reading a quote from On the Sublime and Beautiful by Edmund Burke, published in 1756.Reflection questions:What is your personality like: do you prefer the new and novel or the familiar and dependable?What do you think your donor base needs right now? And, based on what you know about your personality, are you willing to step outside your comfort zone to adapt to your donors’ n...

"...Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity..."This week, I am reading quotes from Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu from his various works.Reflection questions:Are you watering your fundraising appeals with worry and desperation? Or, are you watering them with kindness and optimism?During a busy fundraising season, how are you embracing the saying, “do your work, and then step back. The only path to serenity”?Reflection on Quote:In the United States, we have trained our donor...

"...Consistent with social learning theory, individuals tend to carry beliefs about money and money skills learned in childhood into their adult lives..."This week, I’m reading selected quotes from Money Beliefs and Financial Behaviors by Bradley Klontz, Sonya Britt, and Jennifer Mentzer, published in 2011.Reflection Questions:Have you spent time thinking about your childhood and the beliefs around money you were raised with?Which money script have you been operating in and how might you brea...

"...The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause..."This week, I’m reading from Citizenship in a Republic, a speech given by Theodore Roosevelt in 1910.Reflection question:How...

"...Acknowledging that one does not know is a humble kind of ignorance, one that is, in fact, filled often with the joy of discovery and wonder at what is discovered..."This week, I’m reading a quote from Imposed Ignorance and Humble Ignorance - Two Worldviews by Paul Heltne, published in 2008.Reflection Questions:Are we building structures and processes in our work that demand certainty or are we building those structures and processes to encourage discovery and wonder?Are we willing to be h...