Discipline is Freedom

There is a big banner that drapes down from the ceiling in the gym I go to every day.  It says, “Discipline is Freedom.” 

I think about this concept often and this statement has been our guiding principle at Veritus from the first day of our existence. It permeates throughout our core teaching on The Veritus Way.

The only way to find true freedom in your work as a frontline fundraiser is by having a disciplined approach to how you create authentic relationships with your donors. Implementing a system and structure that requires a disciplined approach to relationship fundraising in order to work sets you free because you know what you must do every day to build those relationships.For some frontline fundraisers, this idea of discipline is an odd and annoying concept. There have been many times where we have begun working with an organization and some of their fundraisers pushed back against this disciplined approach. The reason for the pushback? The frontline fundraisers believed that because they have been doing this work for so long and know their donors so well, they just need to be left alone to “do their thing” and make it rain.

They have come to believe that their “gunslinger” approach to mid and major gifts is working quite well, “so why would I rock the boat and try something different?”

Belief and fact are not necessarily the same.

In fact, when we look at the data, those fundraisers who are “doing it on their own” are not getting great results. We see high value attrition in their portfolios, we see a large majority of donors giving the same amounts every year, and we don’t see a lot of year over year growth of the value of the portfolio. 

We do see, however, that these fundraisers who believe they are doing so well, have a lot of meetings with donors who are “low-level” C donors versus those donors that have potential to give some major transformational gifts. They attend a lot of events and are good at having “surfacy” conversations with donors, but we don’t see a lot of one-on-one meetings trying to fully understand their donors’ passions and interests and matching that up with specific programs and projects of the organization. 

So, the fundraiser “believes” they are doing just fine, because they are maintaining their portfolio and doing a lot of activity. But in reality, they are not being strategic and having the right conversations with the right donors at the right time.

This is where discipline comes in.

A disciplined approach, where you have a revenue goal and a strategic plan for every donor, that the portfolio is tiered A-C, where you have identified those donors who have the ability to make 6, 7 and 8 figure gifts over the next three years and you have a coach who is keeping you accountable, is the only way to find true freedom in cultivating authentic relationships with your donors.   

Over time, the MLOs and MGOs that were annoyed with having to create this disciplined approach have come to not only accept it, but they have become its biggest fans. Why? Because they find that they are much more successful, happier, focused, and actually forming solid relationships with their donors in a way never before possible.

What they find is that a disciplined approach brings them much more freedom to be creative, think strategically, and give them more time to understand who their donors are and what will bring them joy in their giving.

That is what it’s all about.

Jeff