Reflections In Motion

Tag: fundraising teams

  • When a Fundraiser Is Having a Bad Day

    When a Fundraiser Is Having a Bad Day

    The person behind the pitch doesn’t always arrive at work feeling their best

    There are days when a fundraiser arrives at the stand ready for the day.

    The energy is there. The confidence is there. Starting conversations feels natural.

    And then there are other days.

    Maybe you didn’t sleep well. Something happened at home. You’re worried about money. You’ve had an argument with someone. You’re emotionally exhausted.

    Or perhaps nothing dramatic has happened at all.

    You’re simply having a bad day.

    But the fundraising stand doesn’t disappear because you’re struggling. The targets are still there. People are still walking past. And your job still requires you to approach strangers, smile, start conversations, tell the organisation’s story and ask people to care.

    That creates a difficult reality in face-to-face fundraising:

    What happens when the person whose job is to create connection doesn’t feel connected themselves?

    Fundraisers Are People Before They Are Performers

    Face-to-face fundraising is deeply human work.

    Unlike jobs where someone can quietly work through a difficult day behind a computer, a fundraiser’s emotional state can become visible very quickly.

    It shows in your face, your voice and your body language. It can affect your willingness to approach the next person after several rejections.

    People often respond not only to what you say, but to how you make them feel.

    That creates an unspoken pressure for fundraisers to appear positive regardless of what may be happening in their lives.

    But professionalism and pretending are not the same thing.

    Being professional means managing what you are carrying so that it does not negatively affect donors, colleagues or the work.

    It does not mean becoming a person who is never allowed to struggle.

    Don’t Give the Next Person Your Previous Rejection

    A difficult day can follow you into your conversations without you even noticing.

    Your shoulders drop. Your greeting becomes mechanical. You’re approaching people because you have to rather than because you’re genuinely open to the conversation.

    Then someone says no.

    Another person ignores you.

    Someone else waves you away before you’ve finished introducing yourself.

    On a good day, you might brush those moments off. On a difficult day, each rejection can feel heavier than usual.

    And this is where emotional discipline becomes part of the profession.

    The next person walking towards you knows nothing about what happened earlier.

    They didn’t reject you.

    They weren’t rude to you.

    They didn’t waste your time.

    They deserve to meet you, not the frustration left behind by the person before them.

    Learning to reset between conversations is one of those quiet skills experienced fundraisers develop over time.

    Don’t Make One Difficult Morning the Whole Day

    Sometimes the biggest mistake happens before lunchtime.

    You decide:

    “Today is just not my day.”

    Once you believe that, you start looking for evidence.

    Every rejection confirms it. Every person who walks past confirms it. Every colleague who gets a donor while you’re struggling confirms it.

    Before long, you’re no longer simply having a difficult morning.

    You’ve mentally written off the entire day.

    Sometimes you don’t need a dramatic transformation.

    You need a reset.

    Step away briefly if you can. Drink some water. Clear your head. Stop thinking about the entire target and come back to one good conversation.

    Not ten donors.

    Not what your colleague has achieved.

    Not everything that went wrong this morning.

    Just the next person.

    Sometimes one genuine conversation is enough to change the rhythm of the day.

    Your Team Leader Cannot Support What They Cannot See

    There is another difficulty that can develop when someone is having a bad day.

    The fundraiser says nothing.

    The team leader sees someone who is unusually quiet, approaching fewer people or appearing disengaged.

    The fundraiser thinks:

    “Surely they can see I’m not okay.”

    The team leader thinks:

    “Why aren’t they working?”

    Now a personal difficulty has the potential to become a performance conflict.

    This doesn’t mean fundraisers need to disclose every detail of their private lives at work.

    They don’t.

    Sometimes a simple:

    “I’m having a difficult morning. I’m going to keep working, but I’m not quite myself today.”

    is enough to provide context.

    Good teams need enough trust for people to communicate when something is affecting them.

    Leadership Needs to Know the Difference

    This is where the team leader’s judgement matters.

    Not every drop in performance means someone has become lazy or uncommitted.

    Patterns matter.

    If someone repeatedly avoids work, ignores expectations, and consistently underperforms, that requires a performance conversation.

    But if a normally engaged fundraiser arrives one morning and is clearly not themselves, perhaps the first question shouldn’t immediately be:

    “Why are your numbers down?”

    Sometimes it should be:

    “Are you okay today?”

    This doesn’t mean targets disappear or standards suddenly stop mattering.

    It means understanding that performance is produced by people.

    And people do not operate exactly the same way every single day.

    Be Careful With Comparison

    A difficult day can feel much worse when the person standing next to you is having an excellent one.

    You’ve had nothing for two hours.

    Your colleague has already signed several donors.

    Suddenly you’re not only struggling. You’re comparing.

    “Maybe I’m not good at this anymore.”

    “Everyone is moving except me.”

    Healthy teams should learn from strong performers. But another fundraiser’s good day should not automatically become evidence of your failure.

    Fundraising results fluctuate. Timing matters. Location matters. Different fundraisers connect with different people.

    And sometimes someone simply has a better day.

    Learn where you can.

    Then return your attention to your own conversations.

    Professionalism Does Not Mean Performing Happiness

    There is an important balance here.

    Having a difficult day is not permission to treat donors badly, snap at colleagues or abandon your responsibilities.

    But neither should fundraising cultures expect people to pretend that everything is perfect every day.

    You can be struggling and still be professional.

    You can be quieter than usual and still be respectful.

    You can ask for a moment to reset.

    You can tell your leader you’re not at your best.

    And sometimes you can simply acknowledge:

    Today I may not be operating at 100%, but I can still give what I reasonably have.

    Tomorrow Is Another Stand

    One of the dangers of a difficult fundraising day is carrying it home and turning it into a judgement about yourself.

    “I was terrible today.”

    “Maybe I can’t do this anymore.”

    “I’ve lost my touch.”

    But one day’s numbers cannot tell the whole story of a fundraiser.

    Review the day. Be honest about what you could have done differently. Learn what needs to be learned.

    Then allow the day to end.

    Tomorrow, the people walking past the stand will be different.

    The conversations will be different.

    And you may be different too.

    Beyond the Pitch

    Face-to-face fundraising asks people to do something emotionally demanding.

    Approach strangers. Accept rejection. Stay present. Tell stories with conviction. Ask people to care.

    Then repeat the process throughout the day.

    We talk a lot about techniques, targets and performance.

    We should also talk about the person doing the work.

    A fundraiser having a difficult day does not automatically need lower standards.

    Sometimes they need perspective.

    Sometimes they need a reset.

    Sometimes they need support.

    And sometimes they simply need someone to recognise that behind the branded shirt, the target and the pitch is a human being.

    Fundraisers spend their days asking strangers to care.

    Sometimes we need to remember to care about the person doing the asking.

    Continue the Conversation

    If you work in face-to-face fundraising, how do you reset when you’re having one of those days?

    And if you lead fundraisers, how do you balance supporting someone who is struggling with maintaining the standards the job requires?

    Share your experience in the comments.

    Want to Go Further?

    Face-to-face fundraising is about far more than learning the perfect pitch.

    My book Beyond the Pitch: The Art of Face-to-Face Fundraising explores the people, conversations, leadership challenges and realities behind the work.

    📘 Find Beyond the Pitch and my other resources on Reflections In Motion:
    https://reflectionsinmotion.blog/shop/

    Work With Me

    I work with fundraising teams and organisations around face-to-face fundraising, fundraiser development, team coaching, communication and leadership.

    If your organisation wants to strengthen the people behind the pitch through practical training and development:

    📧 lelon@reflectionsinmotion.blog

    🌐 https://reflectionsinmotion.blog

    Reflections In Motion — Ideas. Insight. Impact.

  • Handling Conflict at the Face-to-Face Fundraising Stand

    Handling Conflict at the Face-to-Face Fundraising Stand

    The fundraising stand is quiet.

    Then a potential donor approaches.

    Two fundraisers believe the person was theirs to approach. A disagreement begins. Words are exchanged. Voices become louder.

    Suddenly, a conflict between colleagues is happening in front of the very people they are supposed to be engaging.

    Conflict is inevitable in face-to-face fundraising. Targets, competition, rejection, long hours and different personalities can create tension even within strong teams.

    The real test is not whether conflict happens.

    It is how the team handles it when it does.

    Conflict Is Normal. Public Conflict Is the Problem.

    Face-to-face fundraising can be intense. Fundraisers work under performance pressure, experience rejection throughout the day and often share relatively small working spaces for hours at a time.

    Add individual targets, commission structures and different personalities, and disagreements are hardly surprising.

    But a disagreement becomes something more serious when it begins affecting the donor experience.

    Fundraisers arguing at the stand, criticising one another in front of the public or visibly refusing to cooperate not only damage their own working relationships. They can change how people perceive the organisation they represent.

    The fundraising stand is a public-facing workplace. Professionalism therefore matters even when colleagues disagree.

    Small Arguments Are Not Always About Small Things

    Conflict may begin with something as simple as:

    “That was my donor.”

    “You keep approaching people on my side.”

    “Why am I always placed in the difficult position?”

    But the real issue may have been developing for weeks.

    Perhaps someone believes the rotation system is unfair. Maybe a fundraiser feels another colleague receives preferential treatment. Perhaps individual targets have created unhealthy competition.

    This is why repeatedly telling people to “get over it” rarely solves anything.

    Unresolved frustration has a habit of returning.

    Protect the Donor Experience First

    When disagreement happens during fundraising hours, the first priority should not be deciding who is right.

    It should be protecting the professionalism of the stand.

    If a fundraiser is already engaging a donor, allow that interaction to continue. The disagreement can be addressed privately afterwards.

    Walking away from an argument temporarily does not mean ignoring the issue. Sometimes it simply means recognising that the fundraising stand is not the place to resolve it.

    The donor should never become an audience—or worse, a participant—in an internal team dispute.

    Don’t Turn Two People’s Conflict Into the Whole Team’s Conflict

    One disagreement can quickly spread.

    Someone tells a colleague what happened. Opinions are offered. People choose sides. Previous frustrations are added to the conversation.

    Before long, the original problem has become a team problem.

    Not every conflict needs an audience.

    Where possible, the people directly involved should address the matter with the appropriate leader rather than recruiting colleagues to support their side.

    Strong teams can support one another without turning every disagreement into a group battle.

    The Team Leader Should Listen Before Judging

    Conflict at the stand is one of those moments when leadership becomes particularly important.

    The leader’s responsibility is not simply to identify a winner and a loser.

    Sometimes two people genuinely experienced the same situation differently. Sometimes one person has information the other does not. And sometimes the argument everyone can see is only a symptom of something much bigger.

    Instead of:

    “You always do this.”

    bring the conversation back to:

    “What happened? What was our agreement? What needs to change going forward?”

    One attacks a person.

    The other addresses behaviour and creates room for a solution.

    Good conflict management requires accountability, but accountability does not require humiliation.

    Sometimes the System Is Creating the Conflict

    This is something leaders should pay particular attention to.

    When the same conflict keeps happening, the problem may not simply be difficult personalities.

    If fundraisers repeatedly argue over prospects, are approach rules clear?

    If there is constant disagreement about positioning, is the rotation system understood?

    If commission repeatedly causes tension, does the incentive structure unintentionally encourage people to compete against their own teammates?

    If people believe there is favouritism, are leadership decisions being explained consistently?

    Before labelling people “difficult”, leaders should sometimes ask:

    Are we dealing with a people problem—or is our system helping to create the problem?

    Clear expectations cannot prevent every disagreement.

    But unclear expectations can create conflicts that never needed to exist.

    Competition Should Never Destroy the Team

    There is nothing wrong with wanting to perform well.

    Healthy competition can raise standards and bring energy to a fundraising team.

    But when colleagues begin seeing one another as obstacles rather than teammates, something has gone wrong.

    People stop sharing ideas. Fundraisers become protective over prospects. Someone else’s success begins to feel like your loss.

    Individual performance matters.

    So does collective trust.

    A strong fundraising culture should celebrate excellent individual performance without creating an environment where people have to undermine one another to succeed.

    Resolve the Issue, Not Just the Argument

    Stopping an argument is not the same as resolving conflict.

    People can become quiet and still remain angry.

    Where an issue matters, there eventually needs to be a conversation about what happened, what contributed to it and what needs to change.

    Sometimes a rule needs clarification.

    Sometimes communication needs improvement.

    Sometimes one person needs to take responsibility.

    Sometimes both do.

    The goal is not to determine who “won” the argument.

    The goal is to make it possible for people to work together professionally again.

    Beyond the Pitch

    A strong fundraising team is not one that never disagrees.

    It learns how to disagree without destroying trust, professionalism or the donor experience.

    Because at a fundraising stand, people are always watching.

    They see how we approach donors.

    They see how we represent the organisation.

    And sometimes, they see how we treat one another when things become difficult.

    How a fundraising team handles conflict is also part of how it represents the cause.

    Continue Beyond the Pitch

    Face-to-face fundraising is about much more than approaching donors and meeting targets. It is also about communication, leadership, resilience, teamwork and learning how to navigate the human realities of the job.

    If you work in fundraising—or lead people who do—my book Beyond the Pitch: The Art of Face-to-Face Fundraising explores the lessons, challenges and realities that exist beyond the fundraising conversation.

    📘 Find my books on Amazon:
    https://www.amazon.com/author/kgalalelontumelang

    🌐 Read more on Reflections in Motion:
    https://reflectionsinmotion.blog

    Work With Me

    I also work with fundraising teams and organisations around face-to-face fundraising, fundraiser development, communication, team leadership and practical training informed by frontline experience.

    For training, workshops, speaking or collaboration enquiries:

    📧 lelon@reflectionsinmotion.blog

    🌐 https://reflectionsinmotion.blog

    Join the Conversation

    What causes the most conflict in face-to-face fundraising teams—and what have you found actually works when resolving it?

    Share your experience in the comments. Someone else in the fundraising sector may be dealing with exactly the same challenge.

  • The Cost of Ignoring Your Top Performers

    The Cost of Ignoring Your Top Performers

    Every leader worries about their weakest performer.

    How can I help them improve?

    What coaching do they need?

    How do I get them back on track?

    These are important questions.

    Helping struggling team members develop is one of the most important responsibilities of leadership.

    But while leaders focus on lifting the bottom, they sometimes forget to invest in the top.

    And that may be one of the most expensive leadership mistakes they can make.

    Top performers often continue delivering results without demanding much attention. They are dependable, disciplined, and usually require less supervision than everyone else.

    Because of that, leaders sometimes assume they don’t need support.

    Nothing could be further from the truth.

    Success Doesn’t Eliminate the Need for Leadership

    One of the biggest myths in management is that high performers can simply be left alone.

    Yes, they may require less day-to-day guidance.

    But they still need leadership.

    They still need feedback.

    They still need encouragement.

    They still need opportunities to learn and grow.

    The difference is that their developmental needs are different.

    Instead of asking:

    “How do we fix this person?”

    Great leaders ask:

    “How do we help this person become even better?”

    Leadership isn’t only about correcting weaknesses.

    It’s about multiplying strengths.

    The organisations that continue producing exceptional people are those that invest in excellence—not just recovery.

    Recognition Is More Than Saying “Well Done”

    Everyone appreciates recognition.

    But meaningful recognition goes beyond a quick compliment.

    It communicates value.

    It tells people:

    “We see what you contribute.”

    “Your consistency matters.”

    “Your professionalism doesn’t go unnoticed.”

    Ironically, top performers often receive more responsibility than recognition.

    They’re asked to mentor new staff.

    Cover additional shifts.

    Help struggling colleagues.

    Rescue difficult campaigns.

    While these requests show trust, they can also create an unhealthy pattern where the most dependable people quietly carry the greatest load.

    Recognition should be intentional.

    Celebrate professionalism.

    Acknowledge resilience.

    Recognise positive influence.

    Don’t wait until someone is about to leave before telling them how valuable they are.

    Don’t Mistake Reliability for Unlimited Capacity

    Reliable people become the team’s safety net.

    Whenever something goes wrong, leaders know exactly who they can rely on.

    But there’s a hidden danger.

    The more capable someone becomes, the more responsibility they receive.

    Eventually, reliability becomes expectation.

    Expectation becomes pressure.

    And pressure becomes burnout.

    Top performers aren’t machines.

    They experience disappointment.

    Stress.

    Fatigue.

    Self-doubt.

    They simply hide it better than most.

    The strongest employees also need someone asking:

    “How are you doing?”

    Not just:

    “Can you do one more thing?”

    Growth Keeps Great People Engaged

    Many talented people don’t leave organisations because they’re unhappy.

    They leave because they’ve stopped growing.

    High performers are often naturally curious.

    They enjoy learning.

    Improving.

    Being challenged.

    When their development stalls, so does their motivation.

    Great leaders continue stretching their strongest people by giving them opportunities to:

    • lead team briefings
    • mentor new fundraisers
    • contribute ideas
    • assist with recruitment
    • develop leadership skills
    • participate in strategic planning

    Growth communicates trust.

    It tells people that leadership sees their future—not just their current performance.

    Today’s Top Performer Could Be Tomorrow’s Leader

    Leadership succession doesn’t happen overnight.

    It begins years before a promotion.

    The qualities that make someone an outstanding fundraiser often become the same qualities that make an exceptional leader:

    • professionalism
    • emotional resilience
    • communication
    • consistency
    • accountability
    • integrity

    When organisations intentionally develop their best people, they create a leadership pipeline instead of a leadership crisis.

    Future leaders are rarely found.

    They are developed.

    Great Leaders Build Great People

    Outstanding leadership is about balance.

    Yes, struggling employees deserve coaching.

    But so do your strongest people.

    When every leadership conversation focuses only on fixing problems, opportunities to unlock greatness are missed.

    The best leaders don’t simply ask:

    “Who’s underperforming?”

    They also ask:

    “Who has even more potential than we’re currently developing?”

    That single question changes how organisations grow.

    Excellence Is Contagious

    One high-performing employee can influence an entire team.

    Their attitude raises standards.

    Their professionalism becomes an example.

    Their consistency creates stability.

    But this only continues when those individuals remain motivated.

    Investing in your best people doesn’t create inequality.

    It creates excellence that spreads throughout the organisation.

    When top performers continue improving, everyone benefits.

    Knowledge is shared.

    Confidence grows.

    Standards rise.

    And culture becomes stronger.

    Final Thoughts

    Leadership isn’t measured only by how well you help struggling employees improve.

    It is also measured by how effectively you develop the people who are already performing at a high level.

    Your top performers may never ask for more attention.

    They may quietly continue delivering exceptional work.

    But that doesn’t mean they no longer need leadership.

    Invest in them.

    Challenge them.

    Recognise them.

    Develop them.

    Because when leaders continue growing their strongest people, they don’t simply retain talent.

    They build the future of the organisation.

    Work With Me

    Are you looking to improve your fundraising team’s performance, strengthen leadership, or build a culture where people consistently perform at their best?

    I work with nonprofit organisations, fundraising agencies, and leaders who want to develop resilient teams, improve donor engagement, and create sustainable fundraising success.

    Whether you’re looking for team coaching, leadership development, or practical fundraising insights, I’d love to help.

    📩 Let’s connect: lelon@reflectionsinmotion.blog

    Want to Go Further?

    If you’re interested in using communication, fundraising, leadership, and real-world experience to create impact—and even generate additional income—I share practical strategies in my collection of eBooks.

    📘 Explore them here:

    https://www.amazon.com/author/kgalalelontumelang

    Join the Conversation

    If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to Reflections In Motion for weekly insights on:

    • Fundraising
    • Leadership
    • Broadcasting
    • Personal Branding
    • Career Growth
    • Communication

    New articles are published every week to help professionals grow with purpose.

    I’d Love to Hear From You

    Have you ever seen a top performer leave because they felt overlooked?

    What could leaders do differently to keep their best people engaged?

    Share your thoughts in the comments below.

    LELO