“I don’t know what their problem is,” said the MGO. “They have a lot of money. And we all know that money takes care of everything.”
And that summed up what this MGO thought of his high capacity donor’s failure to get back to him when he said he would. The donor had made a commitment, then canceled it because of some “personal difficulties”. Those personal difficulties, in this MGO’s mind, were not a good enough reason to change the commitment.
Well, first of all, the donor can do anything she pleases. And there is no need to have an attitude about it. But, more fundamentally, life is not all nice and tidy for most of us, even people with money. Money does NOT take care of all things.
This topic was addressed in the writings of a friend of mine who says: “Another topic on my mind these days is that people of means are people first, and people with a lot of money second or third or fourth. Among my close friends at the moment – friends who have a lot of money – are these very human concerns” – (I’ve added some):

• Wife dying of cancer
• Daughter not speaking to him
• Marriage not doing well
• Organization he founded struggling to become stable
• Headaches that won’t go away
• A business that is failing
• Stressed
• Husband involved in horrible car accident
• Son in jail for drug use
• Trouble sleeping

The list could go on. You know what all life’s troubles are. They don’t skip over the wealthy. They may have money to pay for things we can’t pay for. But it doesn’t mean that they are free from trouble.
As you work today on your caseload and talk to donors, remember that life for them is not all nice and tidy. They have other things to think about and do – things that may pull them away from giving you their full attention.
Richard