A teenager asking to skip school isn’t exactly the same as a fundraiser asking for a donation, but there’s shared qualities between the two.
Also be assured: She was always going to go to school last Friday, you guys. On time. For the entire day. And I was going to make her talk to me about it in that way teenagers hate talking about things. I was going to make her talk until I got this pained response:
Child #2 = Michelle in Derry Girls.
Believe it or not, a pipe burst at her school Friday morning, so she came home early. (School administrators are currently investigating everybody from last week’s Comments section who openly conspired to get her out of school).
PRELIMINARY SIDEBAR:
Speaking of…your Comments game is real strong, Substack. Go back and browse some of what you wrote. Below is an A+ comment to whet your whistle:
She didn’t want to go to school because she’s a senior and is already looking ahead to what’s next. I get it. I’m not convinced by it, but I get it.
Speaking of seniors and what’s next, I was invited to American University to speak to graduating English majors this week about career opportunities. I drew up some presentation notes but then had a conflict and couldn’t attend. Below is some of what I likely would have shared about English majors and fundraising.
I went to AU from 2001 to 2003 and left with a Masters in English. By and large, I have nice memories of my time there. Mainly this one:
Arrow pointing to Then Roommate/Eventual Girlfriend/Now Wife lugging a keg into a house party in 2001. This exact moment—me taking a picture instead of helping her carry a keg—is when she fell in love with me. Classic love story. (Waffle-face is one of our roommates)
When I worked in higher education, my students would ask me what they should do after graduation. My response:
You can do anything you want with an English major. You just can’t do it at the last minute.
(If memory serves, most students would ask this about a week before graduating which, I’m sure, made my response wildly unhelpful. But I stand by it.)
Fundraising is a great first job coming out of college for English majors (and as a second career for English teachers). The English major teaches you how to read ambitiously, how to write persuasively, and how to appreciate complicated issues from different perspectives. All things that make for great fundraisers.
Below are 3 interesting qualities English majors bring to the fundraising table:
Fundraising requires you to speak candidly about something many people find uncomfortable.
Majoring in English was fun because you got to read books and then fight about them with others. There’s a conversational confidence that comes from reading lots of books and then slugging it out in a seminar or a coffeeshop.
It’s a confidence that comes in handy when talking about money, which a lot of people feel awkward discussing out loud. A degree in English teaches you how to talk about things with a balance of sensitivity and candor that serves fundraisers well when meeting with donors.
(I wrote an article with my friend Marianne for the Chronicle of Philanthropy not long ago that sort of touches on this. Check it out here.)
Fundraisers know what makes relationships tick.
Picking apart what makes relationships work was something I always enjoyed in my teaching: Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy? Victor Frankenstein and the Monster? William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge? Luxuriating in drama of wildly dysfunctional literary relationships is a fantastic training ground for managing real relationships! Fundraising is about people and about making authentic connections. The relationships that are born from that take time, work, energy, patience, and investment—even those with the most inauspicious beginnings (refer back to above photo of Then Girlfriend/Now Wife carrying keg all by her beautiful self).
Good fundraisers are attentive storytellers.
This is where English majors should really feel at home in fundraising. How stories work, what they communicate, and how people react to them is the bread and butter of an English major. They’re also tools fundraisers use to make connections between money and impact, between donors and beneficiaries, and between nonprofits and the larger community. Sharing a compelling story about why you’re raising money can really make people sit up and pay attention.
The above are really thumbnail sketches of what I would have presented at the AU alumni panel. I suspect the round of applause I would have gotten would have looked like this:
True story: I actually met Stephen Colbert at AU when he was filming a segment for The Daily Show. He asked me what I was studying. I said English. He said (no shit): “Good luck with that.”
All I’m saying is that leaning into what the English major teaches you can lead to unlooked-for career opportunities in fundraising. Strong discussion skills, building relationships, and effective storytelling make for some dynamite encounters with donors and communities.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, my buddy Dan in AU’s Advancement Office is blowing up my phone because he just read this post and thinks I’m overdue for a donation to my alma mater.
that pic of your wife and the story to go along with it is adorable 🩷🩷🩷
Sounds like my daughter's school (rhymes with witty).