#162 | How do fundraising professionals make the best of difficult times?

Jean Morrow currently serves as the Senior Vice President, Resource Development and Major Gifts of United Way of Berks County. Jean has led the resource development department since 2009. She is credited with raising 90% of the organization’s revenue through the annual campaign process. In 2017, United Way of Berks County exceeded a $10.3 million campaign goal by raising more than $10.6 million. In addition to her United Way leadership, Jean is currently the president of the Berks Regional Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

I had the pleasure of meeting Jean earlier this year and speaking with their chapter about Responsive's four frameworks. I was grateful that Jean made some time this week to catch up with me and to talk about how Covid-19 has impacted her work. What was most encouraging about my conversation with Jean was how the United Way and her local AFP have made the best of challenging and difficult times. Jean shared with me a number of examples of how pressing forward, learning in the midst of adversity, always focusing on the goal in front of us, and refusing to turn back enable us to collectively navigate even the most challenging of times.

As I mentioned during the introduction, we would like to invite all our listeners to discover how the four frameworks can help your organization create an environment where fundraising can thrive. Based on insights drawn from behavioral economics, complexity science, and cognitive psychology, these four planning models offer a more holistic and human-centered perspective of fundraising rather than the reductionist and mechanical approach that originated from public relations and marketing. For more information, go to https://responsivefundraising.com/workshops

As always, we are grateful to the team at OneCause for sponsoring The Fundraising Talent Podcast.