Holden, a new grantmaker, in the first year or so of giving away his own money, writes:
For-profit marketing might be soulless and salesy, full of people persuading others of what they don’t believe themselves. But nonprofit marketing should be just the opposite. Marketers shouldn’t want to “serve” the donor; they should want the same thing the donor wants. As a nonprofit employee, you’re presumably sacrificing some income to help the particular organization you’ve chosen - that makes you the donor.
Susan Davis's KINS Method seems to address some of what Holden seeks: Donors and nonprofits united in common purpose where each participant is a giver in his or her own way. If we think in terms of a few dozen donors and nonprofit leaders as the epicenter of a field of interest, it would seem that Susan has created a transferable model. In his Beyond Success, Randy Ottinger describes how Michael Milken created such a community around his area of interest, prostate cancer, and how successfully that model has worked. Holden's issue areas are here. Where might he go to tap into a learning and doing community around each? Why is it so hard to get new donors connected to thriving donor networks? Is there or could be there be a clearing house, or is it just a matter of being passed from friend to friend?
