fbpx

25 awesome fundraising quotes

Published by Reinier Spruit on

Often we hear great quotes capturing the essence of the message. They are inspiring! They remind us of the important reasons why we work for charity and how we should do it, or how best practice would describe it…

In December I attended The Annual Lectures, where an awesome line-up of speakers was challenged to deliver their message in 30 minutes. This forced them to be to the point. And I heard some great quotes.

For example, in her session about ‘Storytelling’ Lauren Semple from Aching Arms reminded us of the power of a true and emotional story:

Life is not scripted. Conversations with our donors should not be either.

A heart-breaking message is hard to capture in a phone script. Sincerity gets lost and it might even result in not taking our donors serious. I love the idea. I love the quote.

Another one of my favourites was mentioned in the same session, by Ken Burnett:

There are two ‘i’s’ in Fundraising – they should stand for inspiration and innovation, not imitation and irritation.

Everybody knows what this means and still many of us need to be reminded. That’s why I think this quote is both good and important.

I’ve asked around to fellow fundraisers lately and collected a good list of quotes and one-liners. Enjoy! Please add your own favourite underneath in the comments!

 

openqmMartin Luther King didn’t get up 50 years ago and say: I have a budget and a plan! – Alan Clayton

If you call yourself Save the Whales, every once in awhile you have to save a whale. – Tom Ahern

The essential difference between emotion and reason is that emotion leads to action while reason leads to conclusions. – Donald Calne

It always seems impossible, until it’s done. – Nelson Mandela.

Donor loyalty is not about the donor being loyal to you, it is you being loyal to the donor. – Harvey McKinnon

Unless you believe you’ll find the cure/right the wrong/feed every child with your next appeal it’s unethical not to focus on lifetime value. – Charlie Hulme

Stewardship at its best engages donors with the impact and outcomes of their investments of time, wisdom, expertise, connections, and money. – Karen Osborne

Retention is the new acquisition. Customer service is the new marketing. – Joe Connelly

Everyone wants charities to spend as little as possible on overhead. That’s backwards. Overhead is what drives growth. If charities can’t grow, they can’t solve problems. So overhead is a good thing. And I’m overhead. – Dan Pallotta

No one has ever become poor by giving. – Anne Frank

The only thing that matters a damn is the donor experience. – Mark Phillips

Innovation isn’t about green bean bags and whacky idea sessions – its a long term business development strategy. – Lucy Gower

Volunteers will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no volunteers. – Ken Wyman

Fundraisers should use pride, not apology, when asking for a gift for a charity that is doing good work. – Henry Rosso

Fundraisers are the catalysts of change. – Unknown

Fundraising is the gentle art of teaching the joy of giving. – Henry Rosso

Most giving is 80% emotion and 20 % rational.  And the best way to get to someone’s emotions is to tell a story. – Unknown

It is impossible to overestimate the motivational effect of conspicuous success. – Giles Pegram

If you need to raise funds from donors, you need to study them, respect them, and build everything you do around them. – Jeff Brooks

People will forget what you said. They will forget what you did. But they will never forget how you made them feel. – Maya Angelou

closeqm

Donors have little way to assess your charity’s work; they use the service you provide to them as a surrogate. – Adrian Sargeant

In good times and bad, we know that people give because you meet needs, not because you have needs. – Kay Sprinkel Grace

We don’t work in the non-profit sector. We work in the for-change sector! – Unknown

And I’ll add one from myself:

We need to value donors as much as we need value from them. – Reinier Spruit


Thank you Howard Lake, Marc A. Pitman, Claire Axelrad, Daryl Upsall, Charlie Hulme, Carla Huskamp, Karen Osborne, Pelagia de Wild, Phil Woollam, Ajay Ochani, Toby Bourke, Ken Wyman, John Burns, Michael Johnston for pointing me in the right direction.


Reinier Spruit

Reinier Spruit

Reinier is in love with fundraising since 2001. Ever since he's trying to improve his own fundraising skills and those of others. He's one of the original founders of 101fundraising. At the moment working with amazing clients through his one-man fundraising consultancy. Loves running and baseball.

46 Comments

Richard Radcliffe · February 13, 2014 at 15:15

Hi Reinier – great post, marriage obviously suits you! I wish there was a really good quote about breaking all the rules you are meant to “follow”. To me, if you follow all the advice issued by Professional bodies (Institute of Fundraisers, AFP and all other similar national bodies) then you are a sheep. If you decide to do exactly the opposite you become a shepherd leading a flock into a new field. Does this therefore mean we should all ignore most advice given in professional training (which is provided by the above names and others such a me)? Personally I find it thirilling to experience a “Student” who disagrees with every damn word I say!

    Reinier Spruit

    Reinier Spruit · February 13, 2014 at 19:57

    Like! If I see one, I’ll forward it to you, but perhaps someone else knows a good one. Thanks!

    Harvey McKinnon · February 14, 2014 at 15:43

    It’s easy to disagree with everything Richard says. And it makes life more entertaining. And a guy his age can always use a thrill. Of course if it’s too much of a thrill for him then we will finally discover which non- profits are in his will. I hope we will wait for a long time.

    Trump · September 12, 2020 at 05:28

    Thank me!!

Erik Visser · February 13, 2014 at 20:03

Great collection. Thanks!

Nicole Salmon · February 14, 2014 at 11:48

Thanks for sharing these quotes. I have coined two that I use as my guideposts in all my personal and professional interactions:

” You need to be the authentic you before you expect someone to reveal the authentic them.”

“How can you flip a coin and lose when integrity is on one side and authenticity is on the other?”

Paul de Gregorio · February 14, 2014 at 16:26

Mine, for what it’s worth.

‘If you keep on doing the same thing, the same thing will keep on happening’. I nicked that from someone much clever than me.

Jeroen Talens · February 17, 2014 at 12:24

Nice.

My contribution:

“The ultimate goal of any charity is to be redundant.”

(“Elk goed doel moet zichzelf overbodig willen maken.”)

Claire Axelrad · February 18, 2014 at 12:11

I’m pretty sure the quote about substituting pride for apology in fundraising comes from Henry Rosso, who I consider to be the “Father of modern fundraising”, from his book: “Achieving Excellence in Fundraising.”

Christina Zitka, MA Independent Fundraising and Board Development Consultant · February 20, 2014 at 21:51

The #1 fundraising quote in my book does not appear above:

“The life of man consists not in seeing visions and in dreaming dreams but in active charity and in willing service.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Bill Wickenkamp · February 21, 2014 at 00:35

Reinier, thanks for sharing. Here is one I have personally experienced: “When I give and nothing happens I am disappointed; when I give and something happens I am elated!”

Jack Cipoletti · January 21, 2015 at 03:06

1. Fundraisers who follow the rules may not always be right, but they are never far from wrong.

2. Our need for funds usually doesn’t translate well into why donors should give.

Sonja Habenicht · March 12, 2015 at 10:18

“Generosity means very little if it doesn’t damage your own luxury.”
William Wilberforce

Keeps me going :)

Collins Effah · August 7, 2016 at 19:33

I admire your inspiration and testimonies

Edwin koome · May 10, 2017 at 12:09

Ask and you shall be given

Heather Flanagan · April 24, 2018 at 22:45

This is awesome!

I am writing my very first fundraising letter for the nonprofit corporation I founded, Transortium. I will ask for funding with pride, inspiration, and excitement!

derecho penal vi+APE-a del mar · August 19, 2018 at 05:39

It’s a shame you don’t have a donate button! I’d definitely donate to this
superb blog! I suppose for now i’ll settle for bookmarking and adding your RSS feed to my Google account.
I look forward to fresh updates and will talk about this website with my
Facebook group. Talk soon!

Ver más datos · October 17, 2018 at 09:27

¿Puedes explicarnos màs sobre esto?, ha sido fantastico encontrar mas informacion sobre este tema.

Saludos

Christopher Hicks · January 9, 2019 at 10:04

Fundraising for a farm need Help

Marla Strock · January 24, 2019 at 14:53

Hello there

SEO Link building is a process that requires a lot of time fo 101fundraising.org
If you aren’t using SEO software then you will know the amount of work load involved in creating accounts, confirming emails and submitting your contents to thousands of websites in proper time and completely automated.

With THIS SOFTWARE the link submission process will be the easiest task and completely automated, you will be able to build unlimited number of links and increase traffic to your websites which will lead to a higher number of customers and much more sales for you.
With the best user interface ever, you just need to have simple software knowledge and you will easily be able to make your own SEO link building campaigns.

The best SEO software you will ever own, and we can confidently say that there is no other software on the market that can compete with such intelligent and fully automatic features.
The friendly user interface, smart tools and the simplicity of the tasks are making THIS SOFTWARE the best tool on the market.

IF YOU’RE INTERESTED, CONTACT ME ==> seosubmitter@mail.com

Regards,
Marla

D.R.RAO. mobile 9059742551 & 9951251505 · April 4, 2019 at 10:42

I am an aged of 65yrs iam preparing for LLB course for 5yrs,iam a poor &hope to get funding from your end. Thankg you sir

Kitty · May 12, 2019 at 20:02

I was curious if you ever considered changing the page layout
of your site? Its very well written; I love what youve got
to say. But maybe you could a little more in the way of content so people could connect with it better.
Youve got an awful lot of text for only having one
or two images. Maybe you could space it out better?

BestLorene · July 19, 2019 at 12:53

I see you don’t monetize 101fundraising.org, don’t waste your traffic, you can earn additional bucks every month with new monetization method.
This is the best adsense alternative for any type of website (they approve all websites),
for more details simply search in gooogle: murgrabia’s tools

Aidan · October 15, 2019 at 22:21

*INSURANCE TRUST FUND*

There is a unique,legitimate and, genuine platform that gives you double of your investment, i would like to introduce you to earn Wisely and share within the people around you register to provide help and get.

*No referral*
*No scam*
*100% Guaranteed.
The instant payment and instant merging is only available for
​Within 50 minutes you will receive your double merging packages:-​

10k to get 20k
15k to get 30k
20k to get 40k
25k to get 50k
55k to get 110k
75k to get 150k
95k to get 190k
115k to get 230k
150k to get 300k
200k to get 400k
300k to get 600k. Interested person should message me privately .to join join group tap on the link bellow
https://chat.whatsapp.com/JxZ2fuC6XtaCmzuR1tIfhg

James Harding · October 16, 2019 at 12:56

Jeff Brooks wins for me, could not agree more: “If you need to raise funds from donors, you need to study them, respect them, and build everything you do around them.”

Investigations Toronto · October 28, 2019 at 09:27

I had fashioned to leave a comment, man do I’ve a
difficult time writing
a blog. Im looking to kick start one on my website and I have to say
its challenging at all. I really do admire people like yourself who are
able to write about anything with ease. Keep up the good work!

Una Ganas · April 6, 2020 at 05:59

affordable health insurance – http://plans7.com

Sremit @ Covidex Store · July 18, 2020 at 09:10

Really I appreciate your blog and your quotes are really very helpful. We started an initiative to raise funds for the people affected by the coronavirus.

Dream or Donate · August 25, 2020 at 13:38

Beautifully inspiring quotes Reinier, thanks for sharing such a motivating write-up!

sketchfab.com · October 21, 2020 at 17:20

Hurrah! In the end I got a webpage from where I be able
to actually obtain valuable information regarding my study and knowledge.

Jeff · April 8, 2021 at 10:18

Do you need installing and repairing electrical systems and equipment at your Crib Point, Frankston, Mornington, Bittern, Hastings, Carrum Downs, Sorrento residence or commercial space? Call our Your Electrician for an excellent service. Visit : https://goo.gl/rZH7j7

incredibox · March 30, 2023 at 19:48

I was blown away by your article! You tackled a complex topic and made it accessible to readers of all backgrounds. Kudos to you!

melon playground · April 25, 2023 at 10:17

Your article offers a unique perspective on the topic.

Amanda The Adventurer · June 21, 2023 at 09:22

That’s a wonderful quote from Lauren Semple! It emphasizes the importance of genuine and unscripted conversations when interacting with donors.

Snus kaufen · July 31, 2023 at 12:48

I congratulate you very much for this excellent contribution.

Frank · August 22, 2023 at 10:11

One of the best posts I have read.

Beliebte Nikotinprodukte · October 5, 2023 at 08:53

I come to your website every day. Again a very nice blog that you have published.

Suche Siberia · October 5, 2023 at 09:13

My lecturer recommended your website to me to look for information for the final paper. I am glad that I found the information on your website.

heardle · October 7, 2023 at 03:43

In December I attended The Annual Lectures, where an awesome line-up of speakers was challenged to deliver their message in 30 minutes

Velo Snus Ort · October 16, 2023 at 15:35

I don’t know much about this topic, but I find it very exciting.

25 Fundraising Quotes to Inspire - Event Journal, Inc. · February 18, 2014 at 18:00

[…] Need more inspiration? Check out 101Fundraising’s blog post for even more fundraising quotes: 25 Awesome Fundraising Quotes […]

Putting the Fun Back into Fundraising – MOPS Australia · June 30, 2014 at 02:20

[…] (Source) […]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *