10 Things I Learned From 30 Years in Sustainer Giving, Part 5

As a fundraiser, your life is not easy. There are days when you wonder why you’re doing it all. There are days where you’re just Zoomed out. You can’t possibly think about yet one more event, one more direct mail campaign, one more Giving Tuesday or other giving day campaign. The stress is huge. There are times when you wonder if it’s really going to make a difference!

I’ve been sharing what I’ve learned about sustainer giving (see links to my previous lessons at the end of this article), and I’m here to say: You do make a difference, one day, one mission at a time. But for those days where doubt and worry and stress come into the picture, it’s really important to take a look at these final learnings.

9. Surround Yourself With Positive People and Positive Things

I am very fortunate to have married one of the most positive people on the planet. But even with that, it’s important to surround yourself with other positive people and positive things.

As an avid reader, I love reading positive books, like those written by Jon Gordon. While I’m not a sports fan, his books are easy to read, easy to understand and inspiring. And I do love romance novels — nothing too heavy and certainly nothing too depressing.

I love watching positive, uplifting and inspirational movies. I don’t watch a lot of violence and rarely watch anything above PG-13. It’s just too much at times.

I eat my piece of chocolate every night with my cup of coffee and a Dutch stroopwafel (really sweet) if I need that special pick-me-up.

You do have a choice in what you watch and hopefully also with whom you surround yourself. If you can recharge your battery with someone and/or something that’s positive, it will be much easier to deal with a bad or stressful day.

10. Believe and Never Give Up

If you believe that your donors want to help, that’s golden. If you believe that you can grow your sustainers, you’ll be much more motivated than someone who doesn’t. It’s really as simple as that. And if something at first doesn’t seem to work, try something else. Do one extra thing. Share your little wins with others. Believe in the goals you wrote down earlier and you’ll be much more likely to accomplish them.

I’m going to leave you with one more thought: There will be days when you feel like you’re just a spider in a web and you feel you can’t get out. There will be days that you feel like you’re pushing a rock up a hill. But, according to Marian Anderson, “If you have a purpose in which you can believe, there’s no end to the amount of things you can accomplish.”

Editor's Note: This is the fifth part of a five-part series, 10 Things I Learned From 30 Years in Sustainer Giving. Each part contains two lessons.

10 Things I Learned From 30 Years in Sustainer Giving 

Part 1: Details Can Make and Break Your Program, and No Room for Silos

Part 2: Operations Is Your Friend and Curiosity Is a Virtue

Part 3: Challenges Are Opportunities and Add Just One More Thing

Part 4: Think Long-Term and Set Goals

Part 5: Surround Yourself with Positivity and Never Give Up