As fundraisers, you’re faced with a daunting responsibility. As we start this new year it’s extremely important that you give your donors and prospects hope that their support hasn’t been in vain.
Mercifully, the calendar year has turned over. 2021 is here and with it, winter. Colorless, drab, cold, lifeless winter.
I was reminded of the many connotations associated with winter the other day while watching an old movie (of which I’m a very big fan), “If Winter Comes”, originally a poem by Percy Bysshee Shellye.
This particular time of year seems to be a perfect metaphor for our lives these days, weeks, and months of pandemic-induced foreboding about the future. For so many of us, this has been and continues to be a very dark time in our lives.
A glimmer of hope is on the horizon as vaccines promise new hope for a better future. Yet many still live in fear. The onset of winter may just have added to a general sense of hopelessness.
I’d like to suggest another way of looking at winter and of helping your constituents through the next hundred or so days.
Though still in its early stages, I’d like to suggest that winter should be viewed as a time of hope. Amid all the uncertainty and even dread that surrounds us, there is good reason to believe that good things are in store for us.
For example, there are still some things we can count on:
The weather will warm up;
Flowers will push their way out of the ground;
Babies will continue to be born; and
Color will return to trees and grass.
We can count on these things happening.
Think of it! Even as we are at least 3 months or more from spring’s arrival, even though trees seem dead and the grass appears dull and gray, soon the earth will experience new life. Birds will sing, bees will hum.
If you have feelings of despair, join the party. Many of your donors may be feeling the same way. Perhaps some may have already expressed this to you.
Impress upon them that these dark and unhappy days are sure to be followed by happiness and joy. As Shelley noted long ago, If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?