Donor Travel: Is It about Acquisition, Qualification, Cultivation, Solicitation, or Recognition?
I’ve written a lot about having one clear goal for your donor trip.But what should that goal be?Are donor trips about acquiring new donors, cultivating existing donors, or recognizing recent donors?The answer is…all of the above.But it is helpful to distinguish your approach based on where a donor sits in the donor cycle. In fundraising, […]
5 Pitfalls of Voluntourism
Charging travelers for volunteer opportunities abroad can be a lucrative revenue stream, but do these short-term assignments do more harm than good? So much of…
3 Fallacies of Voluntourism
In 2019 at the Global PDX Conference, I moderated a panel called “Voluntourism: Power, Privilege, and New Possibilities.” We didn’t shy away from the controversies of sending people overseas for short-term assignments, some of which I’ve documented in the article “5 Pitfalls of Voluntourism.” While the challenges and disappointments of voluntourism have been well-documented in […]
Think Before You Hybrid: Pitfalls of the Quasi-Virtual Experience
With the vaccine looming and pent-up demand for human interaction nearing its bursting point, it’s no wonder we’re all thinking about hybrid events experiences, which occur both in person and in the virtual realm. But hybrid events can be more than twice the work of in-person and virtual events. This article explores common pitfalls to […]
Cultural Differences in Donor-Staff Conversations
I’ve written a lot about the role cultural differences play in travel, particularly, donor trips. But in this article, I want to bring the message of intercultural awareness home to a more familiar territory: staff interactions with donors. Specifically, I’m talking about those the one-on-one meetings that development officers, board members, and executive directors have […]