Issue Fatigue – Fighting for Attention and Funds in an Aware World

Are you changing your lightbulbs? Driving less?  Exercising more? Are you voting for the best social entrepreneur idea?  Joining a cause?  Signing a petition? Are you blogging and twittering to raise awareness?  Loaning money to people in emerging markets? Feeding the homeless, donating new pajamas to foster kids, and giving toys to tots? Are you saving the rainforests one candybar at time and providing clean water one bottle at a time? Are you recycling, composting, reusing? Are you bringing your own shopping bags and your own coffee cup? Are you shopping ethically?  Sustainably? Organicly? Locally?

Aren't you tired? 

Are you trying to raise funds from all these exhausted people who just don’t have the bandwidth to be concerned about one more issue?

It’s more than donor fatigue, where people no longer give because they are tired of fundraising solicitations.  It’s bigger.  It’s issue fatigue. 

Why might awareness be increasing but support waning? There are four main factors.

• It’s the economy.  With the disappearing grants, dwindling corporate support, and declining donations, fundraising confidence is at 10 year low with more than 93 percent of fundraisers saying the economy is having a negative impact on fundraising. There is less money and more need.
• It’s the number of nonprofits. With more than 1.5 million in the U.S. alone (up about half a million in the past four years), and new people starting nonprofits, appeals are up and competition for discretionary funds is greater. 
• It’s the awareness. With Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth and global leaders speaking out, people believe they need to change their habits to save the world.  We have reached a tipping point in public understanding of climate change and many other issues.
• It’s the internet. With so many more ways for people to help and ways for nonprofits to reach supporters, it is no longer just direct mail. People can help their favorite nonprofits by nominating, voting, joining, sharing, evangelizing, blogging, petitioning, auctioning, gifting, loaning, and making small changes, taking small actions. 

Despite greater means of reaching potential supporters, co-host Hildy Gottlieb, author and President of the Community-Driven Institute, argues in her blog that Social Media Fundraising is
a) not sustainable
b) scarcity-based vs. strength-based
c) counterproductive if we want to create a better future for our communities

So in the face of these opportunities and challenges, how do nonprofits filter through the clutter and competition and build sustainable support ? 

Join Jill Finlayson and Hildy Gottlieb as they pose the following questions:

• How do you keep people from being paralyzed and overwhelmed?
• Does bite-sizing social actions make people more or less likely to participate?
• How do you engage people and enable them to help, without burdening them?
• What role does geography play? They say people tend to give where they live.  Has that changed with the internet?
• How can your call for support make it through the barrage of information out there?
• Who can help “triage” the need for support and ways of helping, and provide matching to help connect donors and causes?