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Donors not looking for the experience (2022-01-07)

 


In early 2017, I was a featured speaker at a conference in Seoul. If you check the photos, you will see that it was a fantastic and fun event. We had a tremendous response from the audience, they were hailing us as heroes, it was an event where the attendees were lining up for photos.

One person who did NOT talk with us that day was a South Korean lady in the audience. She followed up with me a few days later. It turned out that her heart had been moved by our presentation and activities. Inae Lee became a fan and donor, and has stayed with us for the last five years cheering us on.

There are different kinds of donors, among them include:

* Donors who want to get involved with the organization's decision-making and management (they can be supportive or critical). I have been that kind of donor when I was invited to help an organization improve its management. 

* Another kind of donor stays as long as he or she is personally engaged with the organization's activities, such as tutoring, mentoring or engaging beneficiaries in other ways. I have also been that kind of donor, such as when I was on the Young Executive Board of the Washington Scholarship Fund.  

* Then there is the kind of donor like Inae who doesn't seek to have a personal experience with the organization or beneficiaries but tries to help the organization grow. She has arranged for us to have venues for events, connected us with others, and tried to find office space for us when we were looking. Plus, she insists on taking the co-founders out to dinner. Of course, there was a fight when it was time for desert. You don't want to get involved when two South Korean women battle over who can pay.

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