As the son of a United Way Exec., fundraising should come easy to me. And I guess it is. I don't have an issue asking for money. And asking again, again, and again. I believe in our mission and the money goes to support the mission of the BSA.
We are getting close to finishing our Family Friends of Scouting campaign. The goal for our district is $70,000, which is one of the top goals in the council. And other than the newly formed Montgomery District, which was created from 6 districts in Montgomery County, we have raised the most money of any district in the council. Per capita, Patriot does more than its fair share.
Fundraising is an interesting lens to look at our community. My best friend from college was an economics major. I asked him about this major--I was an English major, something I loved, so I just didn't get what he liked about boring economics. He explained that at NYU (our alma mater), he had made a conscious decision to be an economics major instead of finance major. Finance was a science. Economics was an art.
And that's what I mean when I say that fundraising is an interesting lens to look at our community. There's a science to fundraising: direct mail, donor databases, well-researched prospect lists. And there's the art: the art of the ask, the art of the pitch, the art of prospect cultivation, relationship building, connecting our donors to our mission and to our programs.
The science of fundraising tells me to look for people with the ability to give. The art tells me to look for the most compelling Scouting stories.
What I find fascinating is the irony (it must be my English-major nature). Irony is what happens when ones expectations are changed. I am always surprised by the sort of financial support Scouting receives (or doesn't receive). A working-class family that whose sons have dropped out of Scouting still supports the BSA because of what we do for the community. A wealthy family with 3 boys in Scouting won't give because they feel that the time they give to Scouting is the way they want to support our programs. A Scout leader won't give because he didn't receive his FOS recognition patch or cap from the year before. A parent whose son has graduated from the Troop gives a huge gift every year and says he doesn't want any recognition--saying that Scouting has already given him his gift, a son who was profoundly influenced by our character-building program.
The stories of giving, I guess, is what interests me. Why folks give, why they don't, shines a new light on our community. And I guess it's easy to criticize folks for not supporting the Scouts, but that's just not constructive. The most important thing is to shape our fundraising message. Connect folks to the costs of Scouting and our mission in the community. Show folks what we do for the community.
In a way, it's like what my teacher wife calls "differentiated learning." I give a fundraising pitch or make an ask and everyone hears a different story, a different appeal. Some folks tell me to concentrate on the costs of Scouting. Some folks say I need to focus more on the stories of our youth in Scouting. Some folks wish I just wouldn't take up so much time with my FOS pitch--they're going to support the BSA anyway!
All this goes into the extent to which a person supports Scouting financially.
And it's a lot more complicated and nuanced than just asking for money...
