"Do stuff that brings in money."

Whenever you hear someone in charity land talk about "fundraising", that's basically what they're saying.

"Stuff" could mean almost anything: write grants, throw events, charge fees for service, sell products or memberships, solicit individual donations, or whatever might bring money in the door.

When it comes to budgets, dollars and dollars.

When it comes to building an organization, all money is not the same.

Numbers can tell a story. It's a story about who you hire, what you spend your time thinking about, who you spend your time with, whose needs are prioritized, and who has power in your organization.

If you want to understand - or predict - your organization's culture, take a look at how you raise money.

Fundraising dictates who works with you

You need different skillsets to raise money in different ways. Grant writing requires program design, writing, prospecting, and reporting skills. Holding a gala dinner means you'll need to know how to produce an event, create corporate sales pitches, set prices, and entertain a crowd.

The experience you have deploying those skills is also different. Events are team efforts, involving committees, crew, staff, performers, and a host of volunteers. Grant writing usually involves long hours, alone, in front of a computer -- no committees, photographers, or publicists in sight.

[Some of you just read "hours alone in front of a computer" and thought "oh, how dreadful!". Some exhaled quietly and thought "that sounds utterly glorious". That's my point.]

Your fundraising team will be made up of people who have the skills you need to raise money from the sources you've prioritized. That team, in turn, influences your culture.

Think of a small organization with a very open, social culture. What happens when you ask someone to sit in the midst of that and write grants? How does the dynamic change? Or think of a quiet, research-oriented (dare-I-say nerdy) institution. What happens if you suddenly have someone talking on the phone all day recruiting celebrities, pitching society photographers, and planning menus? The things you do to raise money and the people you need to do that work will influence your working environment. They just do.

I don't think one way of raising money is inherently superior. I don't think one type of person is the "right" type of person for charity work. I don't think homogeneity within an organization is desirable. And I don't think what's right for you today will be right for you in a decade.

I do think you can be mindful of the ways fundraising influences your culture. I do think you can be intentional about the environment you're creating.

Fundraising influences what you think about

Once you embrace a fundraising strategy, the bonds between fundraising and organizational culture get even tighter.

Every form of fundraising presents some challenges that need to be met, some riddles that need to be solved. What do you want to spend your time thinking about -- Guest experience at an event? Email marketing best practices? The granting criteria and deadlines for the foundations interested in your cause? The customer journey for your members?

The public messaging will always be about your mission, but the logistics of fundraising work are going to be about, well, fundraising.

Mechanics are important. I believe you can learn anything from any opportunity. I believe that experience in other disciplines makes us stronger in our core work (i.e., the mission stuff). Membership strategies hone communications abilities. Individual donor relations strengthen empathy. Events can foster teamwork. Any project can give budget management experience to project staff.

But you only have so many hours in a day. Since you have to do this work, it makes sense to be intentional about your experience. What do you (and your organization) want to be thinking about? What stage of growth are you at right now? What are you good at, and what do you want to become good at next?

Fundraising influences who you spend time with

When you raise money, you bring resources into your organization from someplace else. Money flows from other people's worlds into your world.

That means that you get to know those other worlds, at least a bit. They're distinct from yours and they are distinct from each other. Just think of the people you interact with while fulfilling a government service contract. How are their priorities different from people attending a community pancake breakfast? How are they different from the gala society set? Or the trustee of a multi-generational family foundation? Or the marketing team from a multinational corporation?

Working with donors, you get a glimpse of their worlds. You see how they operate, the values they hold, the knowledge they have, and the perspectives that motivate them. You may even participate in those worlds, seek approval in those worlds, or reciprocate by showing them the inner workings of your own.

The more time you're exposed to each other, the more closely connected you become. It's inevitable. That's how relationships work.

There's no one "right" way to raise money and no correct group of "worthy" donors to court. The key is to find the match that makes the most sense for your mission and the culture you want. Are the people you meet making you smarter and stronger? Is your organization becoming more resilient because of your growing network? Is your team invigorated and energized by these relationships? Is the mission still front and centre? Those are questions to ask yourself as your organization evolves.

You can't escape this

Every organization has a culture. Every culture is shaped by how money is raised. It's inevitable.

When you ask the question "where are we going to get our money from?" you should also ask "who are we and who do we want to become?"

When you make your fundraising plan, you're deciding who you want to spend time with. You are choosing the forces and behaviours that will influence your organization. That's the story behind the numbers. It's an important one.