Claim OwnershipReflections on Generosity
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© 2024 Reflections on Generosity
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Kick off your week with a 5-minute reflection on generosity to ground yourself as you go about your fund development tasks. Each reflection includes a question to ponder throughout the week to aid your work.
72 Episodes
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"...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...
"...real generosity requires requires learning something different, something that may not feel natural for many people. It often requires real personal change. A better understanding of how generosity works can aid that learning and change..."This week, I’m reading a quote from The Paradox of Generosity by Christian Smith and Hilary Davidson. 2014 edition.Reflection questions:How will you take time to explore your own generosity?Will you consider the most important generous person you know a...
"...The brain is stirred. The emotions may be provoked, desires clarified, the imagination stretched...."This week, I’m reading a quote from The Paradox of Generosity by Christian Smith and Hilary Davidson. 2014 edition.Reflection questions:Will you choose a cause other than your own where you can meet with their staff or volunteers to listen with imagination and have your horizons expanded?Will you intentionally reach out to an organization that you wouldn’t typically support in order to be ...
"...You have heard people say, “Love your neighbors and hate your enemies.” But I tell you to love your enemies and pray for anyone who mistreats you..."This week, I am reading the words of Jesus and His approach to opponents from Matthew 5 and 6.Reflection questions:If you were to give your fundraising appeal to an opponent to read, how would they respond? Would the letter be consider fair? Considerate? Even loving?When you are speaking with a donor about an opponent o...
"...Ninthly, that meekness is invincible, where it is genuine, and sincere without hypocrisy. For, what can the most insolent do to you, if you stedfastly persist in kindness to him, and, upon occasion, mildly admonish and instruct him thus, at the very time he is attempting to do you an injury?.."This week, I am reading a quote from Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, written around 171 AD.Reflection questions:How do you approach donors with opinions that are different to your own?How can you be...
"...many of our disappointments and much of our happiness arise from our forming false notions of things and persons. We strangely impose upon ourselves; we create a fairy land of happiness..."This week, I am reading from Abigail Adams’ letter to Hannah Lincoln, written in 1761.Reflection questions:Where are you experiencing disappointments with donors? Can you release the donor and not the vision?As you create a fairy land of happiness, that is a vision of impact, how will you hold the...
"No one can have a happy life if he looks only to himself, turning everything to his own advantage. If you want to live for yourself, you must live for another..."This week, I am reading from Seneca’s Moral Letters, published in 65 AD. Reflection questions:How do we view a donation? Is it simply money for our organization’s advantage? Or, do we view it as a bid for connection from the donor?Is there an area where we letting technology replace relationships and companionship with d...
"...In which class are you? Are you easing the load Of overtaxed lifters, who toil down the road?Or are you a leaner, who lets others share Your portion of labor, and worry and care?"This week, I’m reading a poem, The Two Kinds of People by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, published in 1896.Reflection questions:Is there a new fund development professional in your network that you can reach out to in order to encourage?Or, do you feel like you are drowning a bit and n...
"...Suppose someone standing by a clear, sweet spring were to curse it: it just keeps right on bringing drinkable water bubbling up to the surface. Even if he throws mud or dung in it, before long the spring disperses the dirt and washes it out, leaving no stain..."This week, I am reading quotes from Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, written around 171 AD.Reflection questions:Are we holding onto ugliness from a past interaction with a donor?How can we let go of the ugliness and turn to kindness...
"...pride is to be feared even when we do right actions, lest those things which are done in a praiseworthy manner be spoiled by the desire for praise itself."I sought wisdom from Augustine. First, from Augustine’s book, On the Happy Life, published in 386 AD. And, then from his letter 118, written in 410 AD.Reflection questions:How often are we confronted with the mountain of pride in how we carry out your fund development work?How can we lead with humility in our generosity?Thes...
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