#169 | Does fundraising really have to be mechanical and feel an assembly line?

Shelby has been a part of the team at Colby College for 5 years. In her role, Shelby leads audience-centric strategy and content for annual fund communications in addition to managing relationships with class volunteers to help them reach ambitious goals. Colby is currently in the midst of a campaign for $750M, the largest campaign in liberal arts college history. Shelby and the team at Colby are aware that their unwillingness to take on risks is actually the biggest risk of all. They collectively understand that "We've always done it that way" is an especially expensive way of thinking and just don’t buy it.

What occurred to me during our conversation is that Shelby really enjoys her work, which isn’t something I always pick up on with other guests. She appreciates her team’s sense of community and collaboration as well as their willingness to scrap bad ideas. She believes fundraising should not be rote or mechanical and doesn’t have to resemble an assembly line.

Later this week, our recovery plan will be available free for download. We are very grateful to Jennifer Harris, Andrew Olsen, Theresa Lee, as well as our friends at OneCause and iWave for contributing to this resource. As always, we are very grateful to OneCause for being our sponsor.