In the Midst of the Mother of All Tipping Points, What Tips Philanthropy? By Lori Cloninger Sweeney, MEd Regional Director, Providence Foundations of Oregon
T
he term “tipping point,” introduced by Malcolm Gladwell in 2000, has been applied to everything from economic crises to climate change since his bestselling book The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference was published. And, of course, COVID-19 is the mother of all tipping points. With every surge, we wondered anxiously how COVID-19 would affect our world sociologically and economically; with vaccination, will fundraising be forever changed? When it comes to fundraising, I see “tipping points”— even a pandemic-induced tip—as one of the most hopeful aspects of working with major gift donors, a fulcrum that tips donors to give when life-changing circumstances like COVID-19 occur in their lives.
I don’t believe donor tipping points can cure poverty, but I do believe that events in our donors’ lives change the way they think about their own philanthropy. Sometimes it is a series of small changes that become significant enough, but it can also be a transforming experience like this pandemic that changes the way donors view their own philanthropy—and to what organizations they might make donations. And, for me as a fundraiser, these tipping points have buoyed me through a long career, as the relationship-building and critical conversations I’ve had with donors manifest themselves in gifts when tipping points occur. Moreover, I’ve become schooled in looking for these critical moments in donors’ lives, in anticipating and planning for them, to the benefit of the organizations for which I work.
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