Here we are again in the midst of the big fundraising season. As I type, nonprofit organizations’ direct mail packages are landing in our mailboxes – with dances of response rates dancing in their heads.
This is always an anxiety filled time. Usually, election cycles don’t have a big impact on nonprofit giving. And though this is no usual year, a donor survey we conducted last week indicates that political giving is not siphoning money away from charities.
Still, the divisions and heated national discourse we all have been experiencing this past year isn’t exactly creating the peace on earth and goodwill toward men moment we hope for in the giving season. We are not the most charitable environment.
But the truth is that we’ve been here before.
As I look back at my 25-years in the business, fundraising made it through the fall of the dot.com bust. We made through 9/11 and the anthrax scare. And we survived the Great Recession.
It’s not to say we don’t all have some bumps and bruises from these events, but the generosity of the American people seems to have a way of shining through and saving the day.
I’m optimistic that we will have a good fundraising season, and can’t wait to dig into all the donor databases next January to see just how good you all did.