Focusing on the Positives

by Brandon Thoele

Liz was already a go-getter with her support meetings and letters and was succeeding at in-person follow-up. Then, of course, the pandemic hit. 

Rather than focusing on all of the negatives of how her strategy had to shift, she looked at the positives. 

First, she discovered she could have more meetings. 

She was able to schedule significantly more personal video meetings in a week, or even in a day, than she could schedule “in person” meetings. This was because she didn’t have the drive time, the additional coffee or lunch time, and the pre-meeting chitchat (with video calls, people were more ready to dive right in). 

One day Liz had six Zoom meetings scheduled. She mentioned there was no way she could have scheduled this many “in person” meetings in a day. The results, she discovered, were actually just as fruitful as in-person.  This doesn’t negate the priority of in-person meetings, but when you can’t have them, look at the positives - you could have six meetings in one day!  

Second, a meeting was easier to schedule. 

Liz had quite a few potential supporters with small children. Pre-Covid, she had to figure out how to schedule around nap times, feeding times and bedtimes with those families, let alone vie for their undivided attention. When they did meet in person, one parent would have to keep an eye on the kids while the other participated in the meeting. Because of the convenience of video calls though, the parents easily said, “How about we connect at 8pm after we get the kids to bed?”

Not only could Liz have their undivided attention, but it was even at a time that she would have never thought to ask a family with kids to schedule an in-person meeting. 

Depending on where you live, it might feel like things are returning to "normal"; but, these positives that came out of the Covid season could still apply. What are some changes you could make to your views of fundraising?  How could you shift your strategy to start looking at the positives, or even making the negatives into positives, like Liz did? Take a look at some of our other articles to get actionable ideas!