The case of the Banana Farmer

And why fundraisers need to embrace this part of our work

Professional fundraisers ofter enter this profession with a sense of purpose, mission, and desire to “give back”. We make impassioned cases for support to our potential benefactors, craft exciting campaigns, proposals, and materials designed to inspire the most generous donations our organizations have ever seen.

And when we’re good, we get those gifts. We raise our institutions to new levels of excellence, launch exciting programs, start new initiatives, build new buildings, provide financial aid, team uniforms, and even provide food and clothing to those in need. Because if a nonprofit has it, needs it, or wants it, it probably went through the development office at some point.

But after those resources arrive, after the building is built and the scholarships are distributed, after the faculty or clinicians or program managers are resourced, the fundraiser heads back into the breach to bring in more, and more, and more. It’s relentless. And it can be thankless too. And this can lead to burnout.

That’s where I encourage fundraisers to think like the banana farmer.

Because bananas are everywhere. You can buy a banana at the grocery store, at Starbucks, at gas station convenience stores, and in cafeterias. They’re ubiquitous, and I can say for certain that I have never met or thanked a banana farmer. Not once.

And yet, bananas are grown, picked, packed, shipped, and distributed anywhere you can imagine. There is no stopping the flow of bananas, and to my knowledge, there has never been a banana shortage. The farmers just keep growing and shipping them.

Day after day after day.

And the people who eat the bananas never say “thank you” to the banana farmer. Never! Not once. So how must the banana farmer feel?

My guess is that the banana farmer derives great satisfaction from every shipment of bananas bound for great adventure and approaches the work with yeoman’s anticipation of bananas yet to come.

The best fundraisers I know are similarly wired.