You May Know More Than You Know

Peace House Community Journal

by Marti Maltby

I’ve learned a few things in the last year about fundraising, like, “You can never say thank-you enough,” and, “Tell donors what you are doing with their money, because it isn’t your money that you are spending.”

I’ve also learned that I need to ask Peace House Community’s donors a lot of questions, like, “How did you hear about us? Why did you decide to support us?”, and, “Do you want to receive our newsletters?”

Saying thank-you seems pretty self-explanatory, but it took me longer to wrap my head around the asking of questions. I know that most people receive more emails than they want, so getting another message from me seemed like it would be more of an inconvenience than a blessing. However, I’ve come to understand that our donors know how Peace House Community looks from the outside looking in, and the best way I can show them that I recognize their expertise is to ask them for it.

In this case, asking is important because the donors often don’t realize how valuable their insights are to me. They know things that I need to know, but they don’t know that they know the things I need to know.… Read the rest “You May Know More Than You Know”