Issue #52
3-minute read

Why Growth Makes Fundraising Worse

Hi Reader,

When people started questioning one of our biggest sources of charitable giving, my team didn't see it as just a question about how things work.

They felt like it was an attack on their integrity and the way they do their jobs.

I wasn't ready for that reaction.

Our corporate partnerships team works carefully. We make sure companies truly help children’s health before working with them. There is a rigorous process to assess which companies are a good match and which are not.

But some colleagues who work with us, and some of our volunteers, didn’t know this.

So when people make comments suggesting that corporate money is suspicious, my team takes it to heart. They stay quiet because they’re good stewards.

They go home feeling bad about something they shouldn’t have to worry about. And I didn’t have a plan to fix it.

That’s not a morale problem. That’s a design problem.

What Growth Exposes

When your operation is smaller, proximity does the work.

People understand what you’re doing because they can see it up close. Everyone stays on the same page without having to work at it.

Growth removes that proximity.

As more people get involved, more people see your work without knowing the whole story. Doubts didn’t grow because the work changed, but because more people saw it without understanding how or why it’s done.

That’s when I realized what revenue growth actually costs.

Not budget. Not headcount.

We found a gap between what some people believed and what we thought everyone believed.

The Gap Nobody Builds For

Every chief fundraiser has systems they trust. Criteria that work. Revenue strategies they’d defend in any room.

Most of us don’t have a plan for what to do when people in the organization see these systems but don’t trust them.

My team can close a seven-figure partnership and walk into a meeting where a volunteer implies the whole category is ethically compromised. They have no script for that moment. Neither did I.

The system worked, but the people weren’t ready for it.

That’s not a systems failure. It’s a belief failure. And it’s mine to solve.

Make the System Easy to Understand

Here’s what I’ve learned about fixing belief gaps: you can’t get people to support something they don’t understand. The first step is to show everyone exactly how the system works.

For us, that means being very clear — with our team, with other departments, and with volunteers — about exactly how we make a corporate partnership.

Here’s our sequence:

Source. How a company enters our pipeline. Who identifies them, and through what channels.

Assess fit. Does the company’s work match our mission? Not just “no conflict,” active alignment. Are they doing something that serves children’s health?

Background. What we check, what we’re looking for, what disqualifies a prospect before we go further.

Values check. This is the most important step. After the legal issues are checked out, we move on to something even more critical. We ask whether this partnership passes a values-alignment test with parents, the doctors who work with us, and the volunteers who care about our mission. A company can pass a background check and still not be a good fit. Most people who doubt us don’t know this step happens.

Approval. Who signs off, and at what risk level? Approval is the conclusion of a rigorous process, not the beginning of one.

Up till now, our constituents have only seen the final result — a company’s name on a list. Growth makes it necessary to show our work. We’re going to do that.

I’m creating something called OneFund Collaborative. It will create transparency into how we raise money and clear up misunderstandings. I’ll share more about it soon.

But the first step is always the same: before people can trust the system, they have to understand it.

On My Radar

I’m reading Infectious Generosity by Chris Anderson. He’s the former CEO of TED. One idea connects: TED grew not by keeping its content private, but by sharing it. When you trust others with your work, they can do more with it than you ever dreamed possible. I’m thinking about how this could change the way we share our work and ideas.

Coming Next Week

Next Sunday: the systems that hold aren’t just the ones that work. They’re the ones your organization believes in. What that actually requires, and what I’m calling it.

Your Turn

Before Friday, name one revenue stream your broader organization doesn’t fully understand. Not a flawed one, a good one. One your team believes in and can defend, but that hasn’t been explained to the people adjacent to it.

Write down the steps for how it works. See if you could explain it to someone who doubts it in five minutes.

Until next week,
​Christine​

PS - I'm thinking about building a small, confidential space for CDOs to bring exactly these questions — people, pipeline, whether your read is right. No consultants. No vendors. Just people who hold the same seat. If that's something you'd want, let me know. One sentence is enough.

I’m Christine Bork, Chief Development Officer at the American Academy of Pediatrics.

I write Chief Fundraiser Weekly to share what I’m learning as I lead a growing team and try to do the work in a way that’s sustainable and thoughtful.