Early a.m. Coffee. Outside at Eagle Creek. Reading my new SUCCESS MAGAZINE. My ideal start to a day.
September’s issue of Success Magazine has ‘GIVING’ as its central theme. I strongly urge anyone in the For Impact World to go get a copy and read it cover to cover!
Not only will this help you better understand your investors/benefactors (aka donors)… it will make a difference in your life!
Cover story on Michael and Susan Dell and their foundation is excellent. There are articles on Everyday Giving, Giving Back, Well-Being, Be Happy and much more.
The big thing that jumped out at me was something that I’ve known for a long time but couldn’t quantify:
THE MORE YOU GIVE… THE MORE YOU GET.
Three of the articles referenced the huge leaps in use of brain scans to provide scientific proof that ‘GIVING’ has both a huge, positive emotional impact, as well as a positive physical result!
***If you’re in Development/For Impact Sales… these articles provide wonderful back-up and encouragement for each of us to be out Presenting the Opportunity to as many people as we can… for their benefit! If we don’t ASK… if we don’t SHARE THE STORY… if we don’t PRESENT THE OPPORTUNITY… we are actually eliminating the chance for these people to feel really, really good/happy!
Ask any seasoned ‘fundraiser’ or ‘development officer’ who has actually been out making visits and presentation and asks… and they will all tell you the same thing: The joy and happiness of the ‘giver‘ provided them an amazing sense of satisfaction and success. Being the matchmaker between an investor/benefactor and a great cause is a calling like no other.
Again, go buy Success Magazine. Better yet, subscribe.
Full Disclosure: I’m a Success Magazine freak. I bought my very first copy in 1974 when it was a small 6 x 9 booklet published by W. Clement Stone. Og Mandino is one of my absolute favorite authors and a former editor at Success Magazine. Darren Hardy has resurrected the magazine and it is, in my humble opinion, one of the best magazines out there.
Oh yeah, I should also add that I won a Trip Around the World in a contest sponsored by Success Magazine in 1996. 23 Days. 32,000 Miles. 9 All-Night Planes and Trains. Amazing. As the former singing group, The Monkees, would say, “I’m a believer.”
