Fundraising Tip: Let Go of Fear

You have so much on your plate. Don’t let fear get in your way.

I remember listening to a head of fundraising colleague. We met for lunch at one of our favorite places in downtown Los Angeles, HomeGirl Cafe.

Their organization had a new executive director, and after only a month there was a sense that this person was not a fit for my colleague.

Just a month.

The reality hit when my colleague received an awful (I read it) email from their new boss. It was quite disrespectful. In the end, the new boss wrote “I don’t normally communicate this way” meaning that email was not their usual way of communicating unkind news.

Yet here they were.

The boss was leaving for the holidays so my colleague could only sit with this email for two weeks.

Fear set in. This was not going to work. They needed to rethink their position and consider what might be next.

This, along with everything else some heads of fundraising have to deal with.

It was year-end, so there was a fear of not making the budget.

Then there was that board member, the event in a month, and the staff member who was not working out.

The thing about fear is that we can be free from it. Then one thing pops up and if we’re not careful, we are smothered with an avalanche of fear.

It doesn’t have anything to do with what is happening around us, it has to do about how we feel about ourselves and what has been presented.

People are going to be people.

Leadership and board members are going to throw expectation after expectation on you. Some may be disrespectful. Or even unkind. And that has nothing to do with you.

Spend a year in nonprofit fundraising and you will experience someone completely inappropriate.

Spend a year in nonprofit fundraising and you will experience fear.

You don’t have to live in it.

Fear may present itself as imposter syndrome or a feeling that there is no way you can possibly raise this much money.

Let it go.

You got this.

When I experience fear or imposter syndrome, or anything negative regarding my work, I share my experience with those in my inner circle. I talk it through.

And I take action. I work as if I have no fear at all.

And the fear dissipates.

You’re not alone. And you can do this.

—

Take a risk. Be of service. Support your friends and colleagues. Be kind.