‘Fundraising is an extreme sport.’ Well, the Indian NGO industry certainly knows this to be true. In a free-wheeling conversation with India Writes (www.indiawrites.org) Marc A. Pitman, the man behind those famous words, speaks about his lifelong experience of garnering funds for a host of worthy causes and the India model of philanthropy. Pitman is one of the world’s top fundraising experts and author of the book Ask Without Fear! A simple guide to connecting donors with what matters to them most.
(Excerpts from the interview)
Q) We already know who you are and what you do Marc, but can you share a little bit about your background and what were the early signals that attracted you towards the non-profit sector?
A) I grew up in rural communities in Maine, a fairly rural state in the USA. Although my father stayed employed with the same firm, we moved every 2-3 years. So I developed natural skills of being able to quickly relate to people. Growing up, my parents were always active both in giving and in volunteering for local organizations. I remember seeing my father as a host on the state public television’s annual fundraising auction. And I remember going to nursing homes, homes for unwed mothers, and lots of other charities with my mother.
Interestingly, my parents made me read authors like Zig Ziglar and Norman Vincent Peale. I attended seminars on goal setting, sales and leadership. I even remember at 12 trying to help my grade school define its image so it could market better and attract more students!
Throughout school and college, I was able to travel widely and also participate in all sorts of volunteer groups including community service, bible studies, and political action groups. A group of us even started an inner city community development organisation in our senior year in college. That nonprofit is still running to this day.
I hadn’t thought of this as part of my ‘fundraising journey’ but in my teen years, I had a serious faith encounter and became a Christian. Within a few years of that, I realised I wanted to be a pastor or a missionary. I bet that influenced my choice to work in the nonprofit sector too.
Q) What inspired you to take up fundraising as a career? What was the biggest motivation behind your book ‘Ask without fear’?
A) Hunger! (He grins) I was in an admissions job at the college I graduated from and found out there was no career advancement there. So I made a lateral move over to development and found out I loved fundraising. I love the process of learning about people, finding out what they value, and inviting them to connect with parts of our nonprofit that fit those values. All my goal setting, people skills, marketing, and sales education growing up fit in this field! I also discovered I was quite good at asking!
I wrote Ask Without Fear! after moving back to Maine in 2003. I’d been away for about a decade. In that time, I’d started giving talks and seminars and had discovered that I have an ability to explain complex or emotional issues in ways that people can grasp. Moving back to Maine, I found many nonprofits led by passionate board members but without any infrastructure. But they couldn’t afford to hire me. So Ask Without Fear! was written as an inexpensive way to let them learn how to confidently ask for money.
Q) You have travelled across the world – speaking and training. What places did you feel had the most challenging issues and why?
A) So far, I think Mexico had the biggest challenge; and perhaps Russia. But as with most places, I feel the obstacles are more in people’s minds than in reality. Even in cultures where giving personal money to help out isn’t the norm; when people learn the basics of asking, they can learn to fund their causes. Fundraising is full of wonderful surprises: donors giving more than you expected, anonymous cheques arriving in the mail, people surprised by how fun asking can be.
Q) To bring the story back home to countries like India, what are the primary differences that you see between developed and developing nations when it comes to NGOs, fundraising and philanthropy?
A) I think one of the challenges for countries like India is the perception that charity is something ‘other people’ do for ‘us’. Countries around the world are less comfortable being beholden to foreigners so NGOs have to learn to ask for money from their neighbours.
The challenge is quite daunting. Most people that work in NGOs seem to be surprised by the ‘business’ or ‘funding’ side of the organizations. Even here in the USA, a typical response is ‘that’s not what I got into this for. I wanted to make a change, not deal with filthy money.’
The reality around the world is that NGOs need to be staffed by people committed to doing great work both in their programmes and in their fundraising.
Q) The donation system in India has a huge religious angle to it and many of those donations go to waste. How does one even begin to redirect these donations towards a more productive outcome in a country with so many religions and even more deep-rooted methods of charity?
A) What a frustrating situation! There are a number of things donors can do to verify their money is being used well. First they can learn more about the NGO. Searching on the web, reading other people’s comments. Even asking their friends. If bad charities stop getting money, they will eventually go away.
Part of the ‘going to waste’ perception is also rooted in NGOs being terrible at measuring and communicating their impact. The good news is that NGOs can study storytelling and learn to talk in terms donors care about. Too often we get wrapped up in the technical, self-serving language of our specialty area. Learning to talk in normal language forces us to be clear about what impact, if any, we’re making. And it helps our volunteers and those in the media grasp what we’re trying to do. If we don’t make it easy, they’ll create their own stories but without the special knowledge we have in our target area.
Q) There are many religious organisations that do utilise donations in a productive way (by feeding the poor, providing clothes etc.) but in maybe more, the money (and a lot of gold) just stays there or is used purely to upkeep the temple. Do you feel such donations should be in a separate category and not included as charity per say?
A) That’s a great question. I hesitate to criticise other faith traditions. As a Christian, I am called to give 10% to the work of God. I give most of that to our local church and the remainder to a couple organizations I trust. But I would probably give to our church even if I didn’t like how it was being handled.
I think it comes back to a focus on donors. If donors want to give in accordance with their faith tradition, they should give in a way that has integrity with their beliefs. If stockpiling riches has integrity to them, so be it. If not, they can find another way to support their faith.
Since people lead our faiths, the systems are bound to get messed up and corrupt. That’s not so much pessimism as just being a student of history. Most of our traditions also have a wonderful history of having ‘prophetic’ voices, or reformers, who challenge greed and power mongering. Hopefully, those voices will continue to be loud and clear!
Q) NGOs in India face a number of problems starting with an inefficient system. As is the case with any developing nation, people are reluctant to donate because they don’t trust that their contributions really are reaching the people who need it the most. At the same time, there is a lack of clear accounting of impact. Donor awareness is another problem. Based on your experience, how would you tackle some of these issues?
A) I think this sounds like it is a great time to set up a new charity organisation! One like charity: water here in the USA. The founder, Scott Harrison didn’t like the inefficiencies he saw in nonprofits so when he set out to raise money to drill wells, he changed the model. His board pays for 100% of the cost of administering the nonprofit. That allows them to honestly say that 100% of donors’ money goes to drilling wells.
But I think a huge opportunity exists for NGOs who’ll get over the irritation of asking. So many NGO workers feel they have ‘important’ work to do. And fundraising isn’t part of that. As Mother Teresa so aptly said, “No money, no mission.” You won’t be able to do the work you want to do without finding the funding. And the signs are clear: the government is no longer satisfied with NGOs relying on their ‘neighbours to the north’. If an NGO is serious about surviving, it will get serious about learning to fundraise. What they’ll find out is that fundraising can be really enjoyable!
Q) There are no clear guidelines for fundraising in India. If you ask most people, they would not even know where to start. Most NGO’s are understaffed, under-funded and lack expertise but do their best. What would you tell them under such difficult circumstances?
A) There will always be excuses to not ask for money. NGOs need to get over their excuses and get serious about funding. There are lots of great free fundraising training tools online. Most will work really well in India.
Fundraising isn’t complicated. But it isn’t easy. It involves going up to people and asking them face-to-face to invest in your NGO.
The bad news? It often takes 3 -5 prospects to find a gift. So there’s a lot of rejection. That’s just part of it. If you’re serious about doing your work, you’ll push through the rejection.
The good news? People will say ‘yes’. Some will say it so enthusiastically that you’ll start looking forward to it. Really!
Another piece of the puzzle is learning effective storytelling. The more NGOs can learn to tell stories that resonate with their perfect supporters; they’ll start growing in confidence.
Q) How can the government and the corporate sector aid this process? There are corporate donors and government programmes; but most corporate programmes fund their own initiatives and government funding has a tendency to get lost in the system. How can these two sectors help the non-profit sector?
A) It sounds like the government is part of the problem. This will need to come from the people. This is a time of disruption for NGOs in India. Disruption always leads to innovation. Now is the time to get creative.
Corporate donors are nice, but they, too, are tainted by the negative impression. NGOs should seek donations from them, but not necessarily look to them for leadership.
Even in developing countries, there are lots of ways to fund your mission – money or volunteering. Here in the USA, it’s often the poorer people that give more money than the wealthy. That may be the case in India too.
Q) In your book you say ‘Fundraising is an extreme sport’. Would you elaborate a bit highlighting its challenges even in the best of conditions?
A) Fundraising is an extreme sport because it forces you to deal with your own fears, your own struggles with money, and your own baggage about being accepted. For all the person-to-person interaction in major gift fundraising, it’s really a head game with yourself. Most of the time, all the reasons why fundraising won’t are really just excuses we tell ourselves to let us off the hook and not ask.
NGOs need to be bold. Not cocky. Boldly stating their case, why they are worth investing in. And bold enough to keep asking. That’s why fundraising is an extreme sport. It pushes you to your limits. It is also incredibly exhilarating, especially when you see your mission get funded.
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