No Fundraiser Left Inside

02 Jun No Fundraiser Left Inside

2 June 2026

By David Allen, Development for Conservation

The following is a post I published in 2018. I have reposted variations on this theme every year since. This week, I am out fishing in eastern Oregon, so it seems timely to republish the original.

In 2017, my wife and I visited Scotland. The short version is that we landed in Glasgow, spent a week on the island of Arran off the west coast, and included three days on the island of Islay sampling scotch.

Arran is about 10 miles wide and 20 miles long, and there’s a foot path – the Arran Way – that follows the shoreline all the way around. It’s about 65 miles and we walked it in the five days we were there. (Highly recommendable if you’re ever in Scotland!)

We planned the trip in our heads for months before we left. Visualized every step of the hike and every other mode of transportation – plane, train, ferry, bus, taxi, ferry, bus, ferry, bus, ferry, bus, and return flight – that we employed. But at some level, it was all theory. Scotland’s very existence was theoretical – as least as far as we were concerned.

Now we talk about our adventure as if we own the entire island of Arran – our island, our B&B, our 18-mile hike the first day, our harrowing, five-point traverse of Dippin’ Head around the south end.

We have changed our perspective from third person to first.

* * * * *

I was in Door County Wisconsin the first time I saw the northern lights. There was a massive storm earlier that evening, violent enough that we had been warned to get off the road and seek shelter.

And it certainly lived up to its billing. Dark, fast-moving clouds, violent wind gusts that ripped up anything that wasn’t secure, sheets of pelting rain, dramatic flashes of lightening, and booming thunder that shook the windows.

We let it completely pass, and the sky opened up clear and dark – at or near a new moon.

Rather than returning to our accommodation, however, my buddy and I went out to a local dock and lay down to contemplate the wonders of the universe – that and drink a few beers.

“Look!” he said after a time and pointed to the sky.

The white lights covered the sky and shimmered, like a silk sheet in a light breeze. They weren’t green and red as I had read about, and they weren’t limited to the horizon. I had no idea what I was looking at.

“Northern lights,” he said.

* * * * *

It’s time for my annual reminder that you guys need to get outside.

Is there a project you haven’t seen, a trail you haven’t hiked, or a river calling to you to bring your kayak?

Now’s the time – GO!

Thirty-eight years ago this coming November, I was hired as the Membership Coordinator for The Nature Conservancy’s Oregon Chapter. In those years, I’ve had dozens of memorable experiences just like the ones above.

I could tell you about the bat cave in Texas and the crane migration moving through central Nebraska. I could tell you about fiddler crabs in Florida, and the eleven different species of eagles I saw in Africa.

And I could tell you about the northern lights in Door County and about “our” Scottish island.

Each trip, each experience, each step along the way, I learned a little bit more. Some of it I have remembered and some has faded away. But each place and each wonder has become “mine” in some interesting and important way.

By going there, and by looking and learning, these theoretical third-person narratives became first-person testimonials. Instead of “I learned about,” it became “I saw, I heard, I smelled, and I felt.”

Whether you are an Executive Director, another staff member with fundraising responsibilities, or a Board member, giving yourself permission to make these stories personal by visiting the sites for which you need to raise money will help you a lot. It will make you more effective when you talk about it. It will help you imagine taking donors there – so they can “own” it, too.

And it will keep you motivated.

So GO!

If you supervise others, give them permission to go. Give everyone the afternoon off one day and show them one of the lesser-known projects.

Change their perspectives from third to first person.

Now’s the time. Find your story. (Hint: This is the fun part!)

Get these projects out of your head and into your heart.

Tell ‘em David told you to.

Cheers, and have a great week.

-da

PS: You get extra credit if you take a Board members with you.

PS: Your comments on these posts are welcomed and warmly requested. If you have not posted a comment before, or if you are using a new email address, please know that there may be a delay in seeing your posted comment. That’s my SPAM defense at work. I approve all comments as soon as I am able during the day.

Photo by Pexels courtesy of Pixabay.