Reflections on Generosity

"...the potentially world-changing and life-giving power that may be present in or working through the goodness of the donors' hearts and souls; if only someone would acknowledge it, call it forth, and nurture it!"This week, I am reading a quote from Growing Givers’ Hearts: Treating Fundraising as Ministry by Thomas Jeavons and Rebekah Burch Basinger. 2000 edition.Reflection ques

“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in which case, you fail by default.” JK RowlingThis week, I’m reading various quotes to reflect on how generosity covers our failures.Reflection question:Are we letting failure harden or shame us? Or, are we letting generosity cover our failures

"...All that happens, happens right: you will find it so if you observe narrowly..."This week, I am reading a quote from Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, written around 171 AD.Reflection questions:When you have failed in your work recently, how are observing narrowly for the right things that came out of it?Are you seeking perfection or goodness in your fundraising activities?Reflec

..."And then with a cry from his soul despairing,He bowed him down to the earth and wept.But a voice cried aloud from the driving rain;“Arise, old man, and plant again!”This week, I’m reading a poem, Disappointed, written by Paul Laurence Dunbar, published in 1913.Reflection question:Is there an area of your work where you have been disappointment and you need to stop and wee

"...Life is so generous a giver, but we, judging its gifts by the covering,Cast them away as ugly, or heavy, or hard.Remove the covering and you will find beneath it a living splendor,Woven of love, by wisdom, with power..."This week, I’m reading a poem written by Greville MacDonald to his father George MacDonald in 1930.Reflection question:When will you take time to pause, wait,

"...To think and to will without doing, when there is opportunity, is like a flame enclosed in a vessel and goes out; also like seed cast upon the sand, which fails to grow, and so perishes with its power of germination. But to think and will and from that to do is like a flame that gives heat and light all around, or like a seed in the ground that grows up into a tree or flower an

"...The first and the simplest emotion which we discover in the human mind is curiosity..."This week, I’m reading a quote from On the Sublime and Beautiful by Edmund Burke, published in 1756.Reflection questions:What is your personality like: do you prefer the new and novel or the familiar and dependable?What do you think your donor base needs right now? And, based on what you kn

"...Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity..."This week, I am reading quotes from Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu from his various works.Reflection questions:Are you watering your fundraising appeals with worry and desperation? Or, are you watering them with kindness and optimism?During a busy fundraising season, how are you embracing the saying, “do your work, and t

"...Consistent with social learning theory, individuals tend to carry beliefs about money and money skills learned in childhood into their adult lives..."This week, I’m reading selected quotes from Money Beliefs and Financial Behaviors by Bradley Klontz, Sonya Britt, and Jennifer Mentzer, published in 2011.Reflection Questions:Have you spent time thinking about your childhood and

"...The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause..."This week,