FDR, in 1933, Was Right
In a fireside chat in 1933, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt over the radio waves of America indicated that while in the midst of the depression, there was only one thing to fear... fear itself. And you thought FDR didn’t know about fundraising and philanthropy in 2023.
I've had a number of conversations recently with fundraising leaders. Some chief development officers and others are supervisors of gift officers. And while consistent for most of my career, I hear an increased drumbeat for the fact that gift officers and frontline fundraisers are more and more hesitant to make a phone call and do basic outreach, especially to people they don't know. It is as if there is a hidden “fear” wall holding them back.
While not new, it's just as frustrating. What is, at least in my own opinion, the issue? Fear. Fear of being rejected. Fear of not being liked. Fear of intruding. Fear of being judged.
In that famous fireside chat, FDR talked about the concept of fear, through his great line, as really the true hesitancy for most people. Another way of putting it is that he was saying that great things can be accomplished if we look at the fears we have directly, thinking about solutions and overcoming obstacles, rather than being paralyzed by emotion. In some ways that's true with many gift officers doing initial outreach. The question becomes, at least what I ask, is what is the reason or rationale for the fear? Generally, I find that there isn't a good rationale but just immense acceptance of the parallelization of just being fearful.
To overcome that, one has to be as Abraham Maslow says self-actualized. Knowing who one is and being OK with it is essential to building confidence. Not worrying about what someone on the other end of the phone might say, even though they haven't said anything yet at all. Self-actualization also includes the realization of one's own skill sets that are strong and vibrant, while at the same time readily admitting areas where improvement can be made and then following up to be better.
Beyond self-actualizations, it may be as simple as just making those phone calls and realizing that most people are receptive or at least polite about it if they don't want to talk. And even if they don't want to talk, the reason or rationale has nothing to do with the gift officer. It's something going on in their own life.
While the stakes about FDR's 1933 fireside chat were much deeper in terms of national consciousness and overall challenge, fear of fear can be debilitating. The more in which we get gift officers to understand that they are being accepted more than they realize and that when not, it has very little to do with them, is essential in building deeper more meaningful more robust relationships with current and future donors.
