Adorning an entire wall behind the world’s most successful hedge fund manager sat a map of a world. Shading illustrated the regions where large trades were taking place that day. I pointed to Stratford-upon-Avon, birthplace of William Shakespeare and home to my employer at the time, the Royal Shakespeare Company.
It had taken three years to secure this appointment. All I got was a grilling about why the RSC was leaving the Barbican, its London home. I’d pointed to the wrong spot.
It took another three years to achieve a gift. Meticulous research (largely courtesy of a 17-page article in the New Yorker magazine) and dogged persistence finally paid off.
Not only is fundraising about understanding the essence of your own organisation; it is about what truly motivates an individual to do something extraordinary. The world is full of such people. We simply need to find them, and very considerately, involve them in our work.
Some I've worked with recently
Talents
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