A dose of inspiration can be the best cure to the winter blues, which sap our motivation and creativity. To re-energize you for the second half of the academic year marathon, we found three motivational videos for you to watch over your lunch break (or during your afternoon sanity check).
The Way We Think About Charity Is Dead WrongSummary: Activist and fundraiser Dan Pallotta calls out the double standard that drives our broken relationship to charities. Too many nonprofits, he says, are rewarded for how little they spend — not for what they get done. Instead of equating frugality with morality, he asks us to start rewarding charities for their big goals and big accomplishments (even if that comes with big expenses). In this bold talk, he says: Let's change the way we think about changing the world.
Why included: This talk reviews five major stigmas that inhibit philanthropic growth, and how nonprofits can alter their approach to better serve their missions.
Quote: “Our generation does not want its epitaph to read, ‘We kept charity overhead low.’"
The Art of Asking
Summary: In a passionate talk that begins in her days as a street performer (drop a dollar in the hat for the Eight-Foot Bride!), artist Amanda Palmer examines the new relationship between artist and fan—and how fans will offer to pay without the artist asking for a dime.
Why included: Watch this talk to learn how to inspire donors to give without “forcing” them to do so.
Quote: “I had the most profound encounters with people, especially lonely people who looked like they hadn't talked to anyone in weeks, and we would get this beautiful moment of prolonged eye contact being allowed in a city street, and we would sort of fall in love a little bit. And my eyes would say, ‘Thank you. I see you.’
“And their eyes would say, ‘Nobody ever sees me. Thank you.’”
Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are
Summary: Body language affects how others see us, but it may also change how we see ourselves. Social psychologist Amy Cuddy shows how “power posing” — standing in a posture of confidence, even when we don’t feel confident — can affect testosterone and cortisol levels in the brain, and might even have an impact on our chances for success.
Why included: As often as we’re personally interacting with potential donors and our school communities, it’s important to remain aware of the unconscious signals our bodies are projecting during conversation about ourselves and—by proxy—our schools.
Quote: “We make sweeping judgments and inferences from body language. And those judgments can predict really meaningful life outcomes like who we hire or promote, who we ask out on a date.
“For example, Nalini Ambady, a researcher at Tufts University, shows that when people watch 30-second soundless clips of real physician-patient interactions, their judgments of the physician's niceness predict whether or not that physician will be sued. So it doesn't have to do so much with whether or not that physician was incompetent, [but whether] we like that person and how they interacted.”
Additional ISM resources:
The Source for Development Directors Vol. 13 No. 1 Your Introduction to Annual Fund Videos
The Source for Development Directors Vol. 12 No. 10 7 Video Thank-yous From Private School Development Offices
Additional ISM resources for Gold Consortium members:
I&P Vol. 32 No. 10 Seven Gift Planning Tips for a Small Development Office
I&P Vol. 31 No. 16 The Development Quartet: The Core Leadership Team of the Comprehensive Development Model
I&P Vol. 35 No. 6 Influencing Upward: Skills for the Development Director
