You can be ethical and be in business.

That’s the biggest thing I took away from the Global Impact Summit – this gathering of corporates, social enterprises, not-for-profits and funders in August.

For a long time, I’ve been discouraged about being in business. It seems like the only people who are really getting ahead in a big way are the ones making immoral, unethical or illegal choices about how they run and build their businesses. I’m not mentioning anyone in particular, but I’m certain you can think of a company that would fall into that category. But at the Summit, it was great to hear from people in business who are passionate not only about their own products and services, but also about how to use their businesses as vehicles for good and how to run their operations in an ethical way.

Here are some thought-provoking reflections from the Summit. In no particular order, but just things I’ve been thinking about from the event that I hope will make you think about fundraising and copywriting differently.

Cost and impact – think differently, tell a big story

Daniel Flynn, CEO of Thankyou, pointed out it’s a relatively simple fundraising proposition to ask a funder for $2-6 million to help solve a big problem eg. feeding several hundred thousand families. But it’s much harder to ask for $2-6 million for a single intervention to help one child eg. a young kid who has a very rare disease with no cure.

However, a powerful story can swing the balance in your favour. That’s essentially what happened when it cost millions (estimates range up to $12 million) to save 12 boys and their football coach in Thailand during the 2018 Tham Luang cave rescue. 

Yet many other children are stuck in modern slavery in Thailand… let’s think about how can we make stories absolutely compelling for donors and funders…

People give to people

Monika Tu came to Australia with no English, one suitcase and managed to build a successful luxury real estate business before turning her attention to philanthropy.

Her takeaway quote: “Nobody buys a $20 million home from a stranger. Nobody gives a life-changing donation to one.”

It’s all about relationships – whether in business or philanthropy.

“We are not apart from nature. We are a part of nature.”

That’s from Glenn Bartlett from GreenPay. He also pointed out 50% of GDP is reliant on nature. (But we don’t pay taxes or royalties on that.)

His company’s payments system is about working with the capitalist system rather than against it. That’s why 50% of their profits goes back into protecting and restoring the environment. Instead of trying to change behaviours, he says it’s about changing the outcomes of those behaviours.

Caring storytelling

I loved the session on ethical storytelling but I think I might start calling it caring storytelling. While it was focused on media and podcasting, I loved the lens of care used by Bridget Northeast from the Imperfects Podcast. She learned the hard way that interviewing and storytelling requires a care factor for three parties:

• Host interviewer and team – how to support them through the vicarious trauma they may experience.
• Guests/ interviewees – how to ensure it’s a safe space for them to share and to follow up afterwards.
• Audience – how to ensure they don’t hear something that will unintentionally cause harm.

Her takeaway quote: “Caring for the audience is not the same as pleasing the audience.”

From a fundraising perspective, I would go further and say: “Caring for the donors is not the same as shielding the donors.” While we don’t want to cause donors trauma, we do have a responsibility to tell stories truthfully. That may include unpleasant details. However, if we’re going to share such details, we have a duty of care to ensure our donors have some mechanism for coping with them.

The lens of care in fundraising storytelling has always centred around the beneficiary or participant but we need to also care for the people collecting stories and the donors who read them.

Tackling wicked problems

Collective action is needed.

But one mistake is to think collective action is talking together. Instead you need

• A common agenda
• Shared measurement
• Activities that reinforce each other.

If problems are systemic, solutions need to be systemic.

We need to focus on solving problems not on logos and egos.

With funders focused on shorter time cycles, ask yourselves whether we’re working at the scale required for the problem or the scale of the organisation? Funding is set up to measure individual outcomes not system problems.

As fundraisers, do we need to be having braver conversations with donors? Instead of asking for tangible items for a single person, can we be asking for tangible changes to systems? What do our donor relationships have to look like for this to be a successful fundraising ask?

Fishy business

I adored what Tom Dawkins from LendForGood said about fishing.

“Social entrepreneurs are not content just to give you a fish or teach you how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionised the fishing industry.”

I repeat… Instead of asking for tangible items for a single person, can we be asking for tangible changes to systems? 

You can be ethical and be in business.

That’s what I said at the start of this wrap up.

I loved hearing the vision and passion from so many people bridging business and philanthropy. In fundraising, the philanthropic psychology approach I’ve been talking about for a long time is about shifting focus on growing income to also growing love.

At the Summit, it really restored my faith in humanity to hear people caring about growing profits, growing people and growing the planet too.

Keen to engage Creagivity to help you boost donor retention or work your next appeal? Get in touch to book an obligation-free meet and greet with our fearless leader, June, at a time of your choosing!