Do you recall Cassandra of Greek mythology?
Apollo granted her the power of prophecy. But when she refused his advances, he twisted the gift.
She’d still see what was coming. But no one would believe her.
Development staff often have to be the speakers of unfortunate truths.
Like Cassandra, we’re castigated and disbelieved. It doesn’t matter. Speak, we must.
As the people who find funding for our organizations, we’re the bridge between the external and the internal. We talk to donors about the operations and impact of our organizations. And we carry donors’ feedback to our colleagues inside. Our dual perspective allows us to see problems that our co-workers can ignore.
These bridge moments happen all the time.
When reporting to a funder about a program we provide facts and stories to illustrate its effectiveness. And since we’re the communicator, we have an obligation to be sure that those facts and stories are… factual. Fudging those gaps is something of a skill, but not one I’d suggest we cultivate. And if it becomes a necessary skill, we know that’s a big red flag.
When talking with program people in our organization we offer feedback from these same funders and donors. Sometimes it’s useful, sometimes it’s not. We recognize hesitation about hearing or implementing outside suggestions as a potential warning sign.
We’re also often part of the conversation when developing the measurements for programs. Since we’ll be reporting to funders, we need to know: is the information accurate? Are we measuring what’s important? Are we tracking the information that funders want? When there’s hesitance about looking at programs honestly, that’s a bad thing.
When we discuss budgets, we’re in the middle of that conversation as well. (Or should be.) “How much money can you find for this program?” When it’s not enough and we say so, we’re the focus of frustration.
When the board is not performing, we’re the first to see the effects. Along with our executive directors, we’re the staff who interact with the board. We’re present at board meetings.
We see the weak spots. And we certainly know when their involvement in fundraising isn’t what it should be. Again… we see that as the warning sign it is.
Either the people on the board are the wrong people for the job, or we’re not doing a good job communicating with them. Or both. Either way, it’s a problem for the entire organization.
Like Cassandra, we’re often frustrated.
We work in the intersections. Organizational dysfunction can be very clear to us. Why isn’t it so clear to others? We don’t expect thanks for presenting inconvenient truths.
But we’re obligated to do it all the same.
Mary, as a student of mythology and Latin for many years, I knew right where you were headed the moment I saw the title of your post. It is often very hard to get Boards and program professionals to see that there are better ways to do things than the way they are doing them, but we must keep trying if we want to make our organizations more effective to maintain and grow the support of our donors. Nice post!
Thanks, Richard. I suspect most of us have BTDT. Part of our job!
Great reminder. We must be honest internally and externally… that is what builds our relationships on the foundation of trust. And you are right, sometimes people don’t want to hear it. I’ve been at places that have “two sets of numbers” and places that have unsupported increases in year-over-year funding goals. Difficult and frustrating! Thanks for sharing your insights.
Thanks Beth. You know, I’m not sure if it’s heartening or worrying that so many of us have experienced this.
I try to be part jester and part Cassandra, but the “speaker of unfortunate truths” is much more lonely.
Sometimes it really is. People in other positions can often avoid those truths and keep on doing their jobs without much difficulty. But we simply can’t.