The two things about fundraising are…
Howard Lake | 6 March 2012 | Blogs
Last week Oliver Burkeman’s column in The Guardian magazine asked “Is it true that for every subject, there are only two things you need to know?”
He told the story of economics academic Glen Whitman who was taken by the notion that “for every subject, there are two only two things you need to know. Everything else is the application of these two things, or just not important”.
Eight years ago he updated his website to include contributions from many other people who had tried to sum up “the Two Things” of numerous subjects. You might guess that I immediately explored this list to see if anyone had posited “the Two Things of fundraising”. And no, they hadn’t.
There were the Two Things about Non-profits, from ‘RainCityChick’:
1. You have to look like money to get money
2. Everything is mission-critical
There were The Two Things about Marketing from ‘Racehorse’:
1. Know existing customers.
2. Recruit more customers.
and the Two Other Things about Marketing from the same contributor:
1. Find out who is buying your product.
2. Find more buyers like them.
There was also the sage Two Things about Creativity from Nicholas Kronos:
1. God is in the details.
2. The devil is in the details.
But nothing about fundraising.
So, here’s your chance. What are the Two Things about fundraising? Add your suggestions in the comments below.
PS. I bet George Smith would have come up with some very clever and funny suggestions.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.