Today’s guest blog post was written by Diana Frazier, Senior Client Experience Leader at Veritus Group.

One of the New York Times commentators I read regularly brought up the term “paradigm blindness.” He was using it in a discussion on the deep political divide we have in our nation and cited the Sage Social Science Thesaurus, so of course I followed the link to make sure I was tracking:

The concept of paradigm blindness implies that individuals, groups, and organizations are unwilling or unable to accept any challenge to their core ways of making sense of the world and determining how they interpret and make sense of what goes on around them—in essence, their worldviews (or weltanschauung—according to philosopher and psychologist William James in 1904). [Source: Encyclopedia of Crisis Management; Paradigm Blindness]

But I got thinking about how this concept applies in fundraising, and particularly Major Gift relationship management fundraising.

The 2023 Fundraising Effectiveness Report results showed declines in giving across the board in giving size, including Major Gifts (down 7.1% and defined as $5k-$50k) and Supersize (down 6.3 percent and defined as $50k+). Why is that? What is going on?

What is our paradigm blindness in non-profit organizations? Is it possible that organizations have a belief that wealthy people will just keep giving because they are wealthy? Are leaders or even fundraisers stuck in a paradigm that holds fast to pursuing the money and that has declining returns?

At Veritus we know there is a different way to approach this. We call it The Veritus Way. In looking at our Major Gift clients that ended a fiscal year in 2023, we saw a 28% average increase YoY from 2022 to 2023. Fantastic results that will make a huge difference for the impact those organizations are making in their area of focus. The results covered a wide range of non-profit causes: humanitarian, medical research, medical services, public media, animal welfare, social services, environment, and rescue missions.

But even when an organization does make a shift to be focused on donors that agree to a personal relationship, setting a goal for each donor, building a plan and solicitation that aligns with each donor’s interests, the next leader that comes in may pull the team right back to the old focus on chasing the money. We’ve seen two organizations do just that. Organizations that had incredible results, reversing prior trends. But going back to wealth ratings to drive inclusion in a caseload, not giving history and relationship.

Hopefully there are still incremental gains, but why do we keep doing this?

If you’ve been in this for a while, take some time to examine your own paradigm. What is it you hold to be true? Poke it a bit. See if it holds up. Or see if you’ve been blind.

And if you’ve been stuck, make a plan to take an honest look at what you’re doing. Because if you don’t, the general 2023 decline in fundraising results will be yours again in 2024, and likely worsen.

Diana

Diana Frazier is a Senior Client Experience Leader at Veritus Group. With over 32 years of experience in the non-profit sector, Diana has helped organizations meet strategic objectives through fund and product development, marketing, and operations management. She has worked on staff or as a consultant in a wide range of non-profits including print and media organizations, missions, higher education, health, crisis counseling, and churches.