# Why do I bother?

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2012/07/17/why-do-i-bother/
- Published: 2012-07-17T10:29:36+01:00
- Author: Kevin Baughen

**After a little break for holidays and delivering some groovy client projects we’re
off on a bit of a tangent with this blog.  **

Sort of. I’ve had occasion to think about what we do at [Bottom Line Ideas](http://www.bottomlineideas.com)
and why we do it.  [The magic ingredients of fundraising people](http://bottomlineideas.wordpress.com/2012/06/29/what-magic-ingredients-you-think-make-great-charity-people-great)
features made me think about why we still ‘bother’ when things don’t always go our
way.

![Fortune vomits on my eiderdown once more... Featuring Blackadder.](https://wfay6x.
infiniteuploads.cloud/2026/07/Blackadder.png)

Blackadder meme.

Resilience is the obvious choice.  Resilience to hearing ‘no’.  Resilience when 
being laughed at during a presentation of what we think is a reasonable price for
top-notch work.  Resilience to hearing that others are charging two and three times
as much for equal quality outcomes quite happily.  Resilience shared with client
charities when they see funding cuts bite deep into their service delivery.  Even
resilience in the face of miserable weather.

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I’m being as honest and open as I’ve ever been on these pages and can honestly say
that my resilience is being tested to its maximum right now, even though we still
have some great causes to work with.  But [the rules of blogging](http://weblogs.about.com)
state that I can’t complain because audiences don’t like to read about negatives(
still not sure this is true as we’re all human and being a human is not always sweetness
and light, right?). 

Instead, I’m going to sing the praises of resilience as the most under-rated trait
I think any charity or just small organisation team can have. It’s the single most
important quality we have to keep us going when the world feels like it’s kicking
sand in our face.  When that fundraising appeal doesn’t go to plan or the lobbying
campaign doesn’t result in the change in attitudes we’d hoped for, what is it that
keeps us coming back to improve things; to try again and do better or at least do
what we intended the first time round?  Resilience.

So here’s to everyone equipped with a rubber backside as it’s the single best thing
we can have to help us bounce back up to where we want to be.  I salute you all 
and consider myself simply human that I’m among your number.