Thoughts Of Jon Duschinsky, An International Fundraiser And Trainer
By Liz Rejman, Development Researcher, London Health Sciences Foundation
When I first heard Jon Duschinsky speak, I ran up to him after the presentation and asked if I could work for him. He chuckled and probably thought I was a crazed fundraising groupie. Who could blame me? He inspired a desire to rise up, rattle some cages and turn things on their head for the betterment of the world. He founded two companies - bethechange and The Conversation Farm - from a frustration in the traditional fundraising model. He believes that creative thinking is needed to solve big problems rather than what he was seeing within non-profit organizations: small thinking with too internal a focus. His core thinking centers around the idea that social profit and financial profit can co-exist together, that doing good and making money are not mutually exclusive.
So, when given the opportunity to chat with Jon, one-on-one, on the topic of fundraising, I jumped at it. I share, below, some of his thoughts on campaigns, prospect research and big data.
Comprehensive Campaigns: An ineffective mechanism for meaningful change.
Jon is not a traditional fundraiser. As such, I suspected that he would not get overly excited about pipeline reports, cultivation plans or campaign cabinets. So I was really interested to know what he thought about the efficacy of campaigns.
He was dismissive but resigned to their continuation. As he noted, “Money talks. So long as campaigns raise significant funds for organizations, they will continue to exist.” He succinctly observed that while campaigns continue to raise funds we, as fundraisers, are all returning to the same pool of prospects over and over again – and that pool is shrinking. He also believes that the way to solve problems is to get LOTS of people involved, and campaigns focus too much on an internal audience.
If campaigns aren’t the answer, what is?
Fundamentally, Jon believes we need to stop raising money to meet some strategic plan mandate and to start raising money to solve problems.
He postulates that if we engaged people and companies on a massive scale to be a part of the solution, we as fundraisers would be more successful and more importantly, the world would be a better place.
With research playing a key role within Major Giving programs that are at the heart of campaigns what does he envision the role of prospect research to be?
Prospect Research: the information nerve centre for an organization.
Once again, the theme of looking outward rather than inward emerges. Jon believes that research has a great role to play within organizations (Yipee!). He sees the role of research as the conduit to the trends happening in the world. Researchers are great collectors and curators of information and he views us as “the thought provokers” for our organization: helping (and perhaps forcing) organization leaders to see and understand what is happening externally for maximum effect internally.
Having covered the need for engaging the masses, the curation of content and keeping a pulse on the trends happening in the world, my next question to Jon is on the topic of big data.
Big Data: an opportunity to speak to individuals rather than groups.
Big data is a big buzzword these days, “We expect to be treated in a segment of one. We are more demanding in that regard.” Jon notes. And while big data allows us to speak to each person individually, without a belief system to frame it, it is simply data. Big data needs to speak to who is the organization.
So while Jon hasn’t taken me up on my offer to work for him, he continues to challenge me and others in the world of fundraising, to think differently about how we can ‘be the change we wish to see in the world.’
Want to hear more of Jon’s philosophy on philanthropy?
Jon will be the keynote presenter at the APRA International conference this August in Baltimore, MD. More information can be found here: http://www.aprahome.org/p/cm/ld/fid=375
If you can’t make it to the APRA International conference, but want to learn more, check out: www.jonduschinsky.com, or follow Jon on twitter at @jonduschinsky.
Jon was the co-founder of the Cascaid agency in the UK at the age of 21, then Head of Fundraising at France’s largest AIDS organisation (Sidaction) before taking on the challenge of being the first Director of the French Institute of Fundraising. In 2008, he founded ‘bethechange,’ a global consultancy that provides strategic direction for organizations and companies alike and in 2012, he founded The Conversation Farm. In addition to advocating for change within fundraising, he is the author of “Philanthropy in a Flat World” (2008), and “(me)volution” (2012). Jon consults with fundraising organizations around the world, but calls Canada home.