What Fundraising Organizations Can Learn From Trusted Leaders
- Give credit, don’t take it
- Share what they’ve learned from their mistakes, especially the doozies
- Are candid about what they don’t do well, how they surround themselves with compensating, complementary talents
- Share how they are continuing to learn, not what they already know
- Acknowledge what other organizations do better
- Present themselves as constant adaptors, not masters of timeworn formulas
- Accept responsibility, don’t blame
- Avoid overstatement, overpromising
- Never lose sight of a greater good to be done
Jim Langley is the president of Langley Innovations. Langley Innovations provides a range of services to its clients to help them understand the cultural underpinnings of philanthropy and the psychology of donors and, with that knowledge, to develop the most effective strategies and tactics to build broader and more lasting communities of support. Jim has authored numerous books, including his most recent book, The Future of Fundraising: Adapting to New Philanthropic Realities, published by Academic Impressions in 2020.
Too much of the nonprofit world has fallen into the clutches of the wrong kind of branding, the kind that puffs up the powers-that-be and plays well within the organization but doesn’t ring real or true to the potential philanthropic investor.
Too many nonprofits sound insecure or insincere. Fewer and fewer potential donors are buying the hype.
So much can be learned from leaders in all walks of life who build and sustain trust over time. They are self-aware. They manifest the characteristics below, the characteristics that are essential to stemming the erosion of public trust and to the more systematic building of communities of shared purpose.