A Pep Talk

When you're reading blogs like this one, you often get complex information presented as easy-to-remember slogans and buzzwords: It's all about relationships! Friendraising! Storytelling! Three simple ways to... It all sounds so easy. I often find myself reading a few blog posts, attending a webinar or two and coming away believing I should be able to incorporate all my new knowledge without a hitch. It rarely goes so smoothly as I think it should.

It takes time and effort to perfect new techniques.

I see a lot of organizations jump on a trend or try a new way of doing things, only to abandon it when it doesn't pay off immediately. But how likely is it that you are able to stand up on your first attempt at surfing? Won't you have to learn how to read the waves, move your body in relationship to the water and the board, and teach your muscles how to maintain a new kind of balance?

The same is true for fundraising tools. You may need to work on your new skills over many months and many mailings, tweaking and perfecting constantly, before you see your efforts bear fruit.

In other words: practice, practice, practice.

People who write blog posts with "easy" new tools have been working with those tools for years. Many of the writing tips and techniques I talk about are skills I've been honing for decades.

So if you try something you read on a blog or learned at a fundraising conference once and it didn't work…give yourself a pat on the back for trying something new. And then try again.