Converging Technologies

July 2008

multipage

And the point was driven home to me again when I put out a question to my LinkedIn connections asking, “How would you define Fundraising 2.0?”

Sure, most of the tech and software folks focused their answers on innovations in the technology that supports fundraisers, but the majority of the respondents — those who work at nonprofit organizations themselves and those who represent full-service consultancies — talked about the importance of integration of strategies, merging the brand-new with the tried-and-true (something we’ve been talking about in these pages for years, as well).

Two of my connections — a couple of smart alecks with some very salient points — gave me a pretty sound (though, I choose to be believe, friendly) thrashing for even buying into the Fundraising 2.0 hype.

They bear repeating, so here goes:

Jaap Zeekant, co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Dutch fundraising magazine Vakblad Fondsenwerving: “Over 30 years in fundraising, and I’m still learning about Fundraising 1.0. So don’t ask me about Fundraising 2.0 — whatever that may be. Please skip all the categorizing; just work on your fundraising skills.”

Mal Warwick, founder and chairman, Mal Warwick Associates: “Huh? Fundraising 2.0? The model for this construct, Web 2.0, had some (very vague and ill-explained) basis in reality as interactivity, especially by means of social-networking sites, suddenly exploded on the scene in a major way. Not so in fundraising. What’s new in our field other than the normal, incremental changes that evolve over time? Am I missing something? If so, please let me know right away.”

So it seems more accurate to have changed the title of this special report to “Converging Technologies” because that’s what the future of fundraising is all about — nurturing the roots, strengthening the trunk, navigating the branches and, finally, biting into that succulent fruit that, as it turns out, isn’t the Internet or some other newfangled strategy itself — but the finely tuned convergence of all of the strategies and techniques that make themselves available.

I hope you’ll find some enlightening information about what’s “hot” in in this issue, but that you won’t let your head be turned so much by it that you forget about what has worked for you and your peers and your forebears for so long. Go out on a limb, but hold tight to your roots while you’re doing it.

— Margaret Battistelli

To read story sections within this special report, click on the titles in the box to the right labeled “Related Content.”