I was talking with a business colleague and asked him if he knew Ralph [not his real name].  “You know,” I said, “that guy who used to work at [name of organization].”
“Oh, you mean Ralph [last name]?  Yeah, I know him.  Stay away from him, Richard.  He is bad news.  Did you know when he was with [name of organization] that he…” And my colleague went on to run through a list of allegations and facts that quickly convinced me Ralph was not a guy I needed to engage with.
It is interesting how a reputation is made.  Many people think it happens because of one event.  A person does something great and suddenly HE is great – or something bad, and is suspect.  The building of a reputation sometimes happens that way.
But how does a person usually get a bad reputation?  Most often a bad reputation, just like a good one, is built over time through tiny behaviors that the person thinks no one notices.  These little behaviors – a lie here, the mistreatment of someone there, a certain manipulation perhaps – all have a way of layering over time until their collective energy is powerful enough to bring a person down.
I can think of several people right now who, when I knew them years ago, were ruthless, cruel and selfish in their behavior.  They had a lot of power back then and used it to their advantage to get what they wanted.  And it left a bad taste in my mouth, not to mention countless others they came in contact with.
Now the years have rolled by and, last year, one of those people came to me for a job.  His behavior had finally caught up with him. He had lost his power base and now he needed me to help him out.  I could tell the man had not changed, nor had he outgrown his reputation.  He just needed to get out of the fix he was in.  I took a pass.
“A good reputation is more valuable than money,” the fortune cookie says.  And it is true.  In addition to having a skill, it is your reputation along with that skill that gets you the money.  And, sadly, many people don’t realize this.  Or if they do, they don’t care and continue to take the shortcut by pushing their will onto others.
In the major gift field, a reputation is very important.  I wrote about organizational reputation and trust in my last posting.  Today, I am writing about YOUR reputation as an MGO.
Jeff and I, along with our associates, are honored to work with scores of MGOs around the country who have some of the greatest reputations in the industry.  These are MGOs who:

  • Genuinely care about the donors on their caseload.  And it shows in their treatment of those donors when they go way beyond the “job” to run errands, take pictures, listen to grievances, pray for, attend social events that are not related to the organization, send a card for a grandson’s celebration, etc.  I am truly humbled when I get an email from one of them and they relate a story of grace and caring in their donor’s life.
  • Tell the truth even though, at times, it is uncomfortable.  Sometimes it’s talking about overhead, a very delicate topic to talk about with some donors.  Or, it’s about a lost check.  Or a mistake made in receipting where the gift designation was not properly followed. Or a program that has gone south.  Or an organizational issue that has caused some trauma.  These MGOs are right there with the donor, walking that delicate line between organization and donor loyalty.  And it’s a tough line to walk sometimes.
  • Give the donors honest feedback about what they want to do with their giving, even though that feedback may cause them to either give elsewhere or not give at all.  We had one situation where the donor wanted to give a substantial gift for an interest she had that was not a priority for the organization.   The MGO affirmed the donor’s interest, tried to move her over to an organizational priority, lost the argument but preserved the relationship.  Whew, what a trip that was!
  • Value the long term and patiently walk through the normal giving cycles every donor goes through.  I am so happy when I hear an MGO who works with us say, “You know, Mr. Smith will not be giving as much this year because his business is not going well and he has told me to hang in there with him – that it might be a couple of years before he gets back to where he was.”  This MGO understands how the major gift thing works.  And she will stand up to management on this point, taking the donor’s point of view and reality.  “No, there will not be a 15% increase this year from this donor. It is NOT going to happen!”  Good for her.
  • Are hardworking individuals who have a solid balance between life and work and who understand that major gifts work sometimes comes at odd hours on off days.  But even with that understanding they manage to actually have a life.
  • Are trustworthy.  We’ve been talking about trust in this series.  And trust is a pillar of a good reputation.  An MGO who can be trusted is a very valuable thing.

I think if you met these individuals – wonderful men and women in a very diverse group of non-profits around the country – you would say the following about them:  “These are men and women of integrity who walk in the light.  They have a good reputation and I trust them.”  And you would be right.
And if you were to ask their donors about them they would say, “I haven’t met anyone quite like [name].  There is just something about her that makes me feel really comfortable about my relationship to [name of organization].  And I trust her.”  And they would be right.
Because there is nothing quite like a good reputation.
Richard

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