Change Is the Song You Sing

Donors do not want to give to the same old same old.

I’ve never heard one say, “Oh, I love it. You have been doing the same thing for the past 20 years. I am making this gift to make certain you don’t change a thing.”

Hardly!

Donors give to make change. In a sense, they feel they are change agents by making the gift.  It is a highly motivating factor.

Your mantra is something such as, “We are proud of our distinguished past. But it is to the future we look for even greater achievements.”

An organization’s leader wages everlasting war on the status quo and mediocrity. A leader is an opportunity seeker and seizer. Receptive, curious, unafraid. There’s a can-do spirit, uninhibited and unencumbered by the past.

The other day, I was reading a magazine article about barnacles. I want you to know that I don’t make a habit of reading about barnacles! But this one caught my attention.

It told how the barnacle, very early in its existence, attaches its head to a rock. That becomes its permanent home.

I suggest you eschew the barnacle. Change is the order of the day.