“Is fundraising creative?” asked one of my friends this week.
The way I see it, creativity is not exclusive to certain activities. Whether you’re painting, writing, dancing or fundraising, anything can be creative. It’s not the thing you are doing. It’s the quality you bring to it.
You can paint in a very uncreative way. You can do the laundry in a highly creative way. You can sit in complete stillness doing absolutely nothing and still be creative. It’s the WAY you are sitting. Creativity is an awareness you can feel and experience if you are bringing your whole self to whatever you are doing.
You can sense it in people. The way they walk and talk. You feel a little more alive just being in their presence. Why? Because they love whatever they are doing, a quality that all great fundraisers share.
When you saddle your efforts with expectations and ambitions, fear enters and creativity disappears. It’s a life lived in the future, inevitably accompanied by anxiety.
It’s like an actor who, instead of immersing himself into his craft, spends an inordinate amount of time imagining an Academy Award on his mantel and paparazzi parked at his front door. Or a philanthropist whose real motivation is the thought of winning the Nobel Peace Prize while his friends and family celebrate him as special. When the endgame becomes all, the love of service for its own sake moves quickly to the rear.
Creativity is in the here and now. So ask yourself right now how you can bring creativity to your work. I’m not talking about developing a breakthrough campaign plan. Rather, introduce a small creative way to, say, sign off on your correspondence. Creative touches like this keep your work fresh which feeds your soul starting an infectious cycle that lights up everyone around you.
Peace, love and Bobby Sherman,
Jennifer
I love this particular blog. My feeling is if you’re not being creative and having a total ball while fundraising (or better put, partnership-building), you’re probably not very good at it
. Chill out, remember why you love this project so much, set your mind free to consider all the ways folks can engage and work together to make a difference, and go for it. It’s never not worked for me – even with startups that have no business getting funded beyond the “tried and true.” It’s the very excitement of great partners, shared passion, and the potential of pushing forth a little creative innovation along the way. t
I really appreciate this post. As an artist who fundraises for herself, it is essential that the fundraising aspect is creative. Otherwise, the work can quickly become burdensome. I’ve discovered that keeping the fundraising approaches closely in line with the project I’m fundraising for is really helpful and makes the whole process – as artist, producer, development manager – feel holistic. The letter, the event, the thank you – it should all be connected to the art. Nevertheless, this post is a really great reminder that even small choices (like the sign off) can have a larger impact.