Ep. 199: Stop Making Your Fundraising Campaign Feel Like a Final Exam
EPISODE 199
Stop Making Your Fundraising Campaign Feel Like a Final Exam
About the Episode:
What if the pressure you're putting on your fundraising campaign is actually the thing slowing it down?
In this episode, I'm talking about something I watched play out on a Little League field this weekend: two coaches, same-age kids, same skill level, completely different energy, and completely different outcomes. And I couldn't stop thinking about how much it looked like what I see inside fundraising campaigns every single week. When you hold too tightly to a goal, when every quiet day feels like failure, when the whole campaign starts to feel like a final exam, that pressure changes everything: your messaging tightens, your team feels it, and your donors feel it. And ironically, the pressure creates the very outcome you were trying to avoid. I talk about what pressure actually does to campaign performance, why three of my clients inside The Purpose & Profit Club® thought they were behind when they were actually ahead, the difference between a dirty win and a beautiful loss, and what it really means to lead a campaign well all the way to the end.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
How white-knuckling a fundraising campaign changes the outcome, and not in the way you hope
The payoff of pressure and why we hold onto it even when it hurts us
What pressure actually does to campaign pacing, messaging, and team energy
Why three clients thought they were behind, and were actually ahead
The difference between a dirty win and a beautiful loss in fundraising
How to lead a campaign well without making it a final exam
It’s not your stories—it’s how you’re telling them. If your amazing work isn’t getting the attention (and donations) it deserves, it’s time for a messaging shift. The Brave Fundraiser’s Guide guide gives you 10 done-for-you donor prompts to make your message impossible to ignore. Get it for free here!
Christina’s Favorite Takeaways:
“Did you know that your fundraising campaigns do not have to feel like final exams?”
“If you're not enjoying that, you're missing out. You're missing out on the magic. Enjoying the process does not mean you just put it on autopilot and stop caring. It means you let the campaign breathe. You let yourself, like, let the air out of that pressure.”
“If you want more of something, you need to appreciate that something that is already there.” Lynne Twist
“Are you willing to fail forward? That's the currency to your progress, winning, losing, that's all part of it.”
FREE Resources from Splendid Consulting:
How to Work with Christina and Splendid Consulting:
Easy Emails For Impact™ - Turn Your Inbox into an Income Stream
Double Your Donations - Raise More From Your Laptop Without Chasing Grants or Galas
Donations on Demand: Build a $5K Email Campaign System in 30 min/week
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Christina Edwards 1:09Today's episode is all about pressure, and how that pressure shows up when you're fundraising, and how it may affect and change your campaign results more than you think. So I am coming off the heels of a lot of baseball momming, and both of my kids are fully in their baseball era, which means I have, like, really stepped into my baseball mom era, which is fascinating, because I grew up going to my brothers Little League games and just zoning out and I couldn't wait for it to be over. And I cannot believe that I actually look forward to our games now. I enjoy it. I'm the person who's like, cheering. I'm super into it. I'm like, who am I? Who have I become? And this weekend in particular was our quote, unquote championship weekend, and it's like rec ball. So if anyone is into travel sports or anything like that, just imagine, like, minimal rec ball. Like, it's a great program. It's really well run. But this is not like, we're not cultivating the future major leaguers. Like, you know, we want it to be fun, okay? And I found something like that happened over the weekend, and I had to talk about it, because it wasn't necessarily the games itself, the game itself that was the most interesting part, or the part that I wanted to share with you today. It was the coaches, and it was the stakes, and it was the interpretation of the stakes, the championships, the make or break it moments, you know, two different teams, two different coaches, same same age, kids, same kind of skill set, totally different energy, totally different outcomes. And that's what we're going to talk about today, that pressure because one coach wanted to win so badly that the entire game felt tight. It felt so serious, it lacked any sort of enjoyment. He was angry. He was yelling constantly at the kids, and we were talking about under 10 year olds, frustrated at the mistakes. Now, my child wasn't on this team. Otherwise I would have gotten my mama bear energy out. The kids then reacted. They looked nervous. They were tense, they were striking out. They were underperforming, and they definitely weren't having fun, right? And when something good happened, even if there was, you know, a score or a great hit or something like that, it was like the stakes were so tight and so tight knuckled that no one could relax. You know, when you're like, kind of holding your breath up high. This team wanted to win so bad, and they sort of came out of the gate and they weren't scoring, they weren't feeling great, and so they felt like, and I could feel this coach being like, we got to make up for it. We got to make up for, you know, this right out of the gate. And so there was this tension the whole time. And then there was this other coach, which, I mean, just lucky good fortune, was one of my child's coaches. And of course, like, it feels good to win. So of course the coach wanted to win. Of course the kids want to win. And there was still competition. It was still competitive. There was still like, yes, we want to win. Everyone cared deeply. But the energy was completely different. It was play the game. Give it your all show up. Do not lose do not lose sight on your capacity, your capability, to give to go all in, to stay in it, to recover fast. So even if you don't have a good at bat like recover fast. And as the game started to unravel, because it. Did for that other coach. It kind of hit me that this is what happens in fundraising campaigns. So some fundraisers are out there running campaigns with such a tight white knuckled grip that the pressure itself starts to change the outcome seriously you're holding so tightly on. Have to, we have to raise this that it actually changes the outcome, not because you don't care, but because you care so much, everything starts to tighten. It's reminding me of that metaphor, or like that saying, like a watched pot never boils, right? It's like you're focusing so hard on it that you're like trying to tighten and will it to happen, and what happens? It slows down, messaging the team, the pacing, the energy, the ability to think clearly, the ability to believe in your cause, your mission, your story, your donors, and ironically, that pressure creates the very thing they're afraid of. So we're going to talk about that pressure, how it shows up, and even some payoffs, because pressure does have a payoff. You may be listening and thinking, why would I ever put that, that on myself? Like, why would I, you know, show up and be so tight, not tight on a campaign? Like, that's all downside, but it actually doesn't, because there is a payoff. Otherwise we wouldn't do it right. We wouldn't hold on to and create so much internal pressure. So pressure does help make us feel responsible, committed, serious, high performing, in control and for this like kind of angry coach or very angry coach who had to get the win no matter what it took. That was the pressure, right is like, we are committed to this. We're the best, we're going to be the best, we're going to be the most high performing. I'm going to stay in control. So like, I'm going to pressure us there to do it. But what is underneath that is something else, validation, identity, fear of failing publicly, fear this campaign means something about you and your ability for that coach. Same thing, like, maybe I'm not a good coach. Maybe my kids, you know, I don't know. Like, maybe we're just not who we think they are. It was like, this dissonance and identity instead of, like, maybe this is a little late game. Maybe it's not that serious, right? And so you might be thinking, there is real, real stakes, and those real stakes in our fundraising goals means I have to put pressure on our people, pressure on myself, right? Pressure, pressure, pressure, because I don't want to fail. I don't want to fail publicly. One of the things I've noticed for our sprint students inside the sprint method who are newer or more emerging fundraisers is sometimes some resistance around saying the number, saying the number of how much they want to raise. Out Loud, right? We want to raise $10,000 our goal is $15,000 because the underneath of that statement is pressure. What if we don't do it? What if I fail? What if everybody sees that we only raise $500 it's gonna feel terrible. And that's where things start to get dangerous, where you make everything mean something negative about you. Because now the campaign isn't just a campaign anymore. It's proof right, whether or not you're capable, your organization matters. You're good at this, that you can lead. It's too much weight, too much pressure, and so you have to watch for where you're setting yourself up in that way. Now, inside the purpose and profit Club, which is my high touch fundraising program, where we really work with teams and individuals, scaling up their marketing, their communications, their fundraising, their emails, all as a as a holistic group, right? I noticed a pattern happening in the past week or two where I was like, Oh, this is interesting. Clients showing up with a little bit of panic, We're behind, I think this campaign is stalling. We need to fix this. Something's wrong, and whether or not you realize that that is internalized pressure and a lot of nervousness or a lot of stress coming up, even though it feels like facts. So the first thing I do is I ask the same question, okay, let's look at the data. Let's look at the data. Are you behind on your goal? How much have you raised towards this campaign? Or how much have you raised year to date? Or where are you based on your goal? And it was fascinating for these three particular clients, I asked that same question. You know? Looking for the data, not the emotion, not the spiral, actual numbers. And do you know what happened? They were ahead. They were ahead of last year, ahead of the pacing, ahead of the donor count, ahead of the goal, but the pressure made them feel behind, and sometimes the pressure comes from the quiet. Haven't seen a donation today, haven't haven't gotten an email today. Haven't heard back from that donor today? That's what the pressure does. It creates a feeling of being behind, but that feeling, many, many times, isn't even true, isn't even true. It just distorts reality, and it creates urgency, it creates stress, it creates shame, even, or guilt when there actually isn't anything there, there's nothing dangerous happening. So what does pressure do to speed or affect performance? Pressure speeds you up in the wrong places, because when you're feeling pressure, you sort of go into,
Christina Edwards 11:03
depending on your nervous system response, you might go into like a fight, flight or freeze mode. So you may rush a strategy. You may push more overthink emails, right, which would be more of a freeze response. You may stop repeating your message, your content, your asks. You start to worry. You pivot too early. This is a big one. You pivot too early, you change what was a beautiful strategy, because you're like, oh, it's not working. It's not working. And this is, I'm thinking of that coach again. He's doing some crazy stuff. He's, he's, you know, calling all sorts of timeouts and trying to do all these like, crazy plays that a bunch of nine year olds aren't ready for, right, that haven't been practiced because he's stressing. He's panicking. He's pivoting too early. You're panicking when donations slow for a day. You're micromanaging maybe people around you, or you're even, like, getting mad at them ahead of time. You're like, you know what? That board member, they said they were gonna help and they're not gonna help. It's like this, like this, this spiral of rumination. You stop letting momentum build because you're trying to force proof too quickly. Your team feels it. Staff feels it. Donors can feel it too. You start creating this tension around something that actually could be energizing, fun, even not fun, like easy. I'm not saying like, fundraising is the most fun thing all the time, but fun, like meaningful fun, like the good effort, you know, like the good sweat, when you break a sweat and you're working out and you're like, that was a good sweat. Like a good sauna, even, right, alive, connected, purposeful. And that was the part that I think irritated me the most about watching this other team play is this coach was so stuck in the win, in the need and the have to putting so much pressure on himself, that he was acting himself like a child and on his team, that they're fun. This was supposed to be fun in the first place, he's robbing them, stripping them of the fun, okay,Because most of you are not, you know, screaming at kids on the little league field, but you might be rewriting the same email 14 times, thinking about doing something, but not actually doing it, but you were going to do it about a week ago when you felt better about the whole campaign, changing the strategy mid campaign, obsessively refreshing dashboards in boxes, spiraling after one quiet Day, losing that belief, making maybe the whole team anxious, acting like every campaign is a final exam. This is a big one. As somebody who did not like to take tests. Did you know that your fundraising campaigns do not have to feel like this? They do not have to feel like final exams. In my own business, that's what I do when I open up enrollment for my programs, right? I open up enrollment, I'm creating a campaign, I'm launching, and I can have two very different experience of that process, right? I can enjoy that process because that process is my life. That process is my life. Not just the win when the cart closes and and we have a bunch of amazing organizations join, but the process of the doing, the process of the action. And if you're not enjoying that, you're missing out. You're missing out on the magic. Enjoying the process does not mean you just put it on like, autopilot and stop caring. It means you let the campaign breathe. You let yourself, like, let the air out of that pressure. You're like, it's okay, it's okay. You trust repetition that your audience needs. That repetition. You celebrate the early momentum. You. Notice what's working. Oh my gosh, if you would just do this, notice what's working. Five donors showed up today. I talked to three prospects on the phone. Two people said, Yes. Like those pieces celebrate what's working. You keep showing up without that instant proof that need for it. That's why what you appreciate appreciates. That's one of my favorite quotes from Lynn twist. If you want more of something, you need to appreciate that something that is already there, that's something that's already there. So many leaders only focus on the gap. Hello, little league coach, that is normal, that is human, and that's optional. Others know how to build energy around the progress. You know, I have two kids, two kids that were are in Little League. One team won, one team lost, one team got to go ahead to the final championship game, one of my children's team, one team didn't. And both, when I think about the experience of both, because, again, they both lucked out, having really positive coaches who were like, fine and didn't, didn't hurt their ego to lose or to win, it meant, it means that I reflect back on the loss going it was such a like, great season. It's not so heavy, it's not so hard. It doesn't mean you like, are happy you lost. It just means there was so much fun in it, there was so much heart in it, there was so much excellence in it. So building that energy around the progress, it changes everything. one of my children's teams lost this weekend, which means, you know, whoever, who they Were playing against, won, and they won through misery. If that makes sense, they won through like, like, what's the word I'm thinking of like, you're you're trying to pop a blood vessel, like you're so angry throughout the whole thing, you're like, hulking out through it. Like they won through just the opposite of fun. And I kept thinking about, like, what is the cost of this win? Right? You You got the number, you hit the win, but like, your staff is fried, your team is fried, your confidence is wrecked, your nervous system is wrecked. Because you've been like, spike like, peak Valley, peak Valley. The process, the process in the progress was chaotic. The campaign trained everyone to associate fundraising with stress. That was hard. I want to do that again. And what kept coming back again and again for me was that's a dirty win. It was a dirty win. It was like unnecessary, because some organizations will lose beautifully. They build momentum, community, confidence, systems, donor trust, and maybe even you don't hit that final big goal, but you've built all of those things. And it's like, do you want to have fun and enjoy the process of those beautiful outcomes, which will tee you up to an even better next campaign? Or do you want to just be mad about the whole thing the whole time, right? That's the kind of losing that often turns into long term winning is like it does take this idea of I've talked to several executive directors recently, and I've been asking about their tolerance for failing forward. What is your tolerance of failing? Are you willing to fail forward? That is the currency. That's it. That's the currency to your progress, winning, losing, that's all part of it. And I think when you go in with the expectation, let's say there's 10 games in the season, 10 campaigns in your fundraising season, and if we don't win all 10 or 10 and, oh, the whole thing is after, right? It's like, what are you doing? What a stressful, Stress Ball. Way to exist. So instead of thinking, This campaign has got to work and that energy, my job is to lead this campaign, well all the way to the end. Instead of, we need proof right now, I need to know where is everybody can try. We're building momentum. I'm all in. Instead of, we can't fail, or I can't fail, try. This is one rep I'm putting in my reps to a much bigger body of work, right? This is, this is how I'm taking action. This is how we do it. So this time, especially, I see this time of year, especially, I see organizations tend to tighten up because summer can slow down narratives. You can start to take your foot off the gas of fundraising, because it's summer and. And just go, You know what? We'll wait until year end. That's our time. And then what happens is that fall pressure starts to creep in, right? That year end panic starts to come earlier. It's like your Sunday scaries, right? Actually turn into like Saturday scaries. That pressure is already creeping in. So I want you to watch for it. I want you to watch for it, and want you to ask yourself, What can I do right now to alleviate some of that pressure? I want you to run a sprint campaign over the summer. That's what I want you to do. And I want to offer you can run a sprint campaign, a short, high touch campaign that brings in 510, even $20,000 in a short period of time from your laptop. Okay? You can run that very, very quickly over the summer and still go on vacation and still not tire out your donors for year end. I promise you, this is what our clients are doing in both of our programs. Okay, so if you're like, I have no idea how to fundraise from my laptop without a grant, a gala, something like that. The place for you to begin is this is the sprint method. That's where I teach you the entire online fundraising framework. If you're like, I have a sense of this, but I don't know how to scale it up. I don't know how to improve upon it. I feel like there's more juice to squeeze. I feel like we could raise more, but I don't know how I'm sitting on a pretty decent email list size or donor base size, and I don't know what this next level is, then the purpose and profit, club, group, coaching program, is the place for you. So that's a little bit of a difference there. So remember, you don't need more pressure. You need to stop letting pressure run the room. You do not need more pressure because leaders and fundraisers who build this momentum that sustains them are not always the loudest and the maddest, right? It's not like that football coach energy, you know, on the sidelines with headset, they're the ones who now to speak kindly themselves, to their staff, to their team, to their volunteers who stay in steady long enough for this work to compound. That is how you're great. That's how you become great. So I hope that was helpful. I'll see you next time.