LOok everybody! Skruffy made me his friend! That is my first friend on SG. So cool. I feel accepted.
Maybe I'll get the nerve to go to a Curry next. Yummm.. >.. Curry.
I went to "vote" today.
I went to a conference for fund raising professionals, what an odd experience. I just knew that it wasn't my scene. My friend Jackie said that she didn't like how all the people were so into their job, and my other friend ben said how he was annoyed how no one there approached their work with a critical mind... being a conference on how to make money, I was not surprised at that. But it then occurred to me:
MOst of them don't care about the mission of their organizaitons. They just care about making money. And that makes me not care about where they go or who they are or what they do. Except that I am a fundraiser too.
I made sure to pipe up during every session about how raising money for social change work is drastically different than what most of the sessions are geared towards, and that its hard to apply the lesson of 'this session' to raising money for human rights monitoring in palestine or land reform in brazil.
Bunch a wonks, really. I was glad to run into my friend Melinda at the end, who works at the red cross but who has good solid progressive politics.
Note to self: DONT SELL OUT>
Maybe I'll get the nerve to go to a Curry next. Yummm.. >.. Curry.
I went to "vote" today.
I went to a conference for fund raising professionals, what an odd experience. I just knew that it wasn't my scene. My friend Jackie said that she didn't like how all the people were so into their job, and my other friend ben said how he was annoyed how no one there approached their work with a critical mind... being a conference on how to make money, I was not surprised at that. But it then occurred to me:
MOst of them don't care about the mission of their organizaitons. They just care about making money. And that makes me not care about where they go or who they are or what they do. Except that I am a fundraiser too.
I made sure to pipe up during every session about how raising money for social change work is drastically different than what most of the sessions are geared towards, and that its hard to apply the lesson of 'this session' to raising money for human rights monitoring in palestine or land reform in brazil.
Bunch a wonks, really. I was glad to run into my friend Melinda at the end, who works at the red cross but who has good solid progressive politics.
Note to self: DONT SELL OUT>
VIEW 4 of 4 COMMENTS
tic_tac_toe:
Hey, anybody who does political fundraising is a friend of mine! I actually did fundraising for awhile, well, canvassing. I worked for Peace Action, doing the door-to-door grind for about seven months in '99 until they eventually fired me for not making quota for 2 straight weeks. Now...I really felt like hiring canvassers was not the best way to develop activists, because there was such a turnover & it was all about the $ & numbers. It really felt like a sort of hippie-ish Glengarry-Glenross scene there. I just didn't see it as an effective way of organizning (esp. for a group like Peace Action)...now, I don't know what kind of fundraising you do, but what's your take on canvassing? It seems to be the only way to really get into activist work, but it's a grinder that very few people make it through. Is it a necessary evil? An initiation of sorts, to weed out those who are not dedicated enough? I have to say it was pretty addictive, though, and I would have done it again had I not needed more $ to live on...I still would like to get back into activist work someday...
fuzzybunny:
Just checking in, wondering how you're doing on the day after. I feel sick to my stomach. 