“What do you mean you lost the check?” the manager almost yelled.  “How could you do it?  It was $75,000, for goodness sakes!  75,000 dollars of someone’s life!”
It was not a pretty situation.  I wasn’t there, but I heard about it in great detail just a week after it happened.  Someone had lost a donor check for $75,000!  It was gone.  Vanished.  Vaporized.
And as we dug into all the reasons for this mysterious disappearance, the whole thing boiled down to what Jeff and I constantly speak about – treating donors as partners vs. sources of cash.
Here’s what happened.
A good MGO had been working very hard to develop a relationship with her special donor.  Meals, telephone calls, emails and conversations had raised the level of trust and interest of the donor.  She was not only ready to do something, she was ready to do something big and had become excited about it.
Securing the donor’s trust over time is no small thing.  You know that.  But this MGO had done it.  She had communicated several key points that had stuck in this donor’s heart and mind:

1. You (donor) have a very special role to play.
2. You can trust us.
3. We value you.
4. This cause matches your passions and interests.
5. Giving now is important and valued.
6. We will honor you and your giving.

That’s a boatload of promises, isn’t it?  Goodness.  Anyone REALLY believing all of that would have had to develop a pretty serious level of trust.
So the donor sat down and wrote a hefty check.  Now, as I think about just this act alone – sitting down and writing a check – I can imagine the donor’s first thought:  “This will be a good thing to do.  And it’s exactly what I want to do.”  So, she sat down and, with warm and trusting feelings, wrote the check.
She then made sure it got out to the mailbox and put the little flag up informing the postal person that there was mail there ready to go.
The postal person came. It had been a busy day.  He was slightly behind schedule.  But he grabbed the letter and tossed in a pile in his truck, not realizing that he was carrying the hopes, passions and dreams of the donor.  There was a lot of power packed into that envelope.  Power that was going to be put to use in the next few weeks.  Power that was going to reach in and change someone’s life.  You could almost imagine the letter warm and glowing with the expectant energy for doing good.
The letter got to the organization and a clerk in the mailroom dutifully threw it into a pile. It was just another check from a donor.  The process of dehumanizing the donor had begun.  What was sent as a valuable expression of goodness and hope for the poor was now just something that needed to be processed.
But the letter was put in the wrong pile and it went to another department – one that deals with things other than fundraising.  And the person there opened the letter.  “Oh, it’s just a check from a donor. Nice amount.  Wonder why it came here?  I don’t have time for this.”  And it was set aside to be lost on the desk and eventually thrown away.  The donor, again, is reduced to a nuisance – a wayward piece of work that does not merit time or attention.
No one is sure that this is what actually happened.  But I am sure that is was something like that – a careless processing of money to get a job done vs. the careful honoring and caretaking of a donor’s desires and dreams for helping others.
If each of the people along the shipping and processing channel had actually sat with the donor and felt her passion and trust, I think things would have gone differently.  That letter would have been handled as if it were a priceless treasure.  But they didn’t know, nor did they care.
This is what Jeff and I get very concerned about – the dehumanizing of donors that happens day in and out in every non-profit around the world.  It happens when all the handlers lose sight of that very special and spiritual thing that takes place when someone gives. The whole thing devalues down to the mere processing of money and transactions.
Well, the MGO had to go back to the donor, confess that her check had been lost and ask her to write another one.  I can imagine the donor thinking:

1. You said I had a very special role to play.
2. You said I could trust you.
3. You promised you would value me.
4. You told me that my giving now was important and valued.
5. And you said you would honor me and my giving.
6. How can you lose my check if all these things are true?

It must have been a difficult thing for the donor to process.  But she took the high road and issued another check.  I am sure that in her heart she wondered if all those promises were really true.  And at some level she felt diminished.  It makes me sad to think about it.
When will we stop this careless focus on the money? When will we develop a culture of truly honoring and valuing the donor?  I think we can do it if each of us commits to becoming a voice for the donor in our organizations.  Then, we need to continue to spread this message to everyone, everyday until it becomes part of our organization’s DNA. It just takes one small voice to make a difference.  Will you do it?
Richard