7 Common Ways to Stereotype Fundraisers
Let me be nostalgic about my job in the past: fundraising.
My ex-boss at an NGO where I worked for even says that fundraising is much harder than sales (B2B or B2C, it doesn’t matter). What makes it hard? Yeah, because we, fundraisers, should ‘sell’ something intangible. Conservation program, children development program- whatever it is — people can’t smell, see, and touch it as a concrete stuff. All what we can do on daily basis is explaining what the NGO that we represent has done and persuade people we meet at malls, train stations, or bus stops, to take a desired action: giving a donation using credit or debit cards. No cash or payment using e-wallets (GoPay, OVO, LinkAja, Dana — whatever you prefer) please!
Okay, so here I would like to discuss how people I (and some of my ex-coworkers) met at public places might stereotype fundraisers. If you want to add some, feel free to give comments below this post.
1. “They mustn’t be fluent in English!”
According to EF English Proficiency Index in 2018, Indonesia got the 51st rank among 88 countries; which was categorized as a country with low proficiency in English. Yeah, I admit that some of my ex-coworkers are not really fluent in English. Even few of them can’t speak English at all.
But, some others are undeniably fluent. One of my ex-coworkers even could get a foreigner donor (I forget which nationality the donor has) who used his credit card!
So, this stereotype might be considered by people who don’t want to listen to fundraisers. They can pretend to be foreigners who can’t speak Bahasa. I met a person who did this, and what I said was, “I can speak English!” in a high tone with my chin up. Then, the person I met said, “Eh, eh, nggak jadi Mbak, makasih,” (it’s how to say “No, thank you” informally in Bahasa) while walking fast. Boom!
2. “Ah, all they need must be money!”
Fundraiser: “Hi, Sir/ Ma’am! I would like to share briefly about…”
Person being greeted: “No, sorry, I don’t have any credit cards!” then walking away without even having an eye-contact with the fundraiser.
A senior fundraiser will say, “Thank you, have a nice day!” with a waving hand, sincere smile, and confidence that he/ she will get a donor that day. However, a new fundraiser will say, “You can also use debit cards!” with a fear of losing a prospective donor.
Hmm, okay. That’s just an ice-breaking.
So, people might consider that we, fundraisers, are totally money-oriented. In fact, it’s partially true. I can’t deny that the aim of standing at malls and greeting strangers is to get the donors, and they are supposed to donate by giving money. But, fundraising is also about how many people who had known the idea of contributing to nature, or education, because of us. It’s not always the money that we seek. We also seek the value of telling people to perform good deeds.
Then Atta Halilintar will say, “Ashiaaaap!”
3. “They don’t seem highly educated…”
Actually it is a misleading stereotype. I’m in an urge to say that most of my ex-coworkers possess Bachelor’s degree from reputable universities. Furthermore, some of them are honored cum laude.
One of my ex-coworkers told me that she met a critical person at one of malls in Surabaya. She greeted that person, and the person said, “Are you a university graduate or not? If yes, I would like to listen. If not, I think that what comes out from your mouth is totally a bullshit.”
As she possesses Bachelor’s degree, the person stopped by and listened to her carefully.
The (almost) same thing happened to me. But the one who asked me was a tenant fellow. She asked me, “Where did you have your SMK (vocational high school) education? You got into this job after graduating from SMK, didn’t you?”
Then my mom could come up with a sardonic stare saying, “Fara is my only daughter who possesses Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from Institut Pertanian Bogor! She was taught to be a scientist. She was supposed to work at LIPI!” (LIPI is an abbreviation to Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia, an Indonesian government’s research institute).
Scientist? Yeah, now I’m a microcopy scientist. I analyze what kind of copies I should provide to give seamless user experience.
4. “If I refuse to donate, they will surely force me to do so!”
Are you pretty sure? Eh?
Okay, we, fundraisers, would like to admit that we learned how to do the Objection Handling. Briefly, Objection Handling is about not giving up easily if we receive people’s rejections. If people say ‘later’, we will be supposed to persuade them to do it ‘now’. If people are in doubt, we will have to convince them. If people need further information so they don’t want to donate now, we will deliberate more about the program.
However, there are 3 forms of rejections that shouldn’t be handled by the Objection Handling: 1) they can’t afford the donation; 2) they think that the program is bad; and 3) they’re not interested to donate.
Here are some tips from an ex-fundraiser: If you want to refuse donating without saying “no” frankly, just give one of the reasons above. We, fundraisers, don’t give a damn whether you’re honest or lying. If you want to refuse stopping by, just don’t make an eye contact with us — we believe that the absence of eye contact is also the absence of interest.
5. “Excuse me, can you show me where the toilet is?”
Huh? Do they think that we’ve memorized this mall’s directory?
Yeah, people at malls might think that we know where all tenants are placed, where the ATM center is; just because we work at this mall. It’s logical, but it will be quite embarrassing if the scenario becomes like this one:
Fundraiser: “Hi Sir/ Ma’am! Let’s choose one of these pictures which, in your opinion, represents the most challenging problem of…”
Person being greeted: “Sorry, can you explain how I get to Chatime? I’m in a rush — going to meet my boss.”
6. “They will do anything to get a donor!”
Okay, let’s get serious in this and the next part. I can’t deny that some people bring the name of well-known NGOs or communities to do fundraising in, let’s say, wrong ways. They do fundraising by visiting people who sit at restaurants. Surprisingly, they will get upset if they get rejected — then they just walk away after saying thank you but without an eye contact or shaking hands.
As a fundraiser, I was told not to perform fundraising mechanisms like explained above. I had to wear official uniforms, official name tags, and stand at official booths. Everything should be all official. No underground mechanisms performed.
So, for those who might think that all fundraisers will do underground yet prohibited things to get donors, I solemnly declare it’s a big NO.
7. “Yeah, I’m gonna argue with them as I think that they don’t really understand these issues fundamentally!”
It’s related to Stereotype Number 3. Lucky for those who possess Bachelor’s degree in Forestry and they work as fundraisers at The Nature Conservancy. So, they can argue with so-called critical yet judgmental people by sharing the knowledge they’ve gained at university.
But, what if they possess Bachelor’s degree in Physics and do fundraising for Save The Children? It’s gonna be challenging —they should explain education problems that happen to children, meanwhile they had been taught to measure gravitation force for 4 years.
So, to solve this, I memorized the pitch card’s content, then improved it. I sought additional information through Google, then ensured it was credible enough. And after all, I tried to stay relaxed — if I didn’t know a particular thing, I would be just fine. My boss wouldn’t fire me and my client wouldn’t kill me!
