Funders Don't Owe You Anything

There's a post going around LinkedIn right now where a fundraiser is calling out a foundation for not structuring a grant as multi-year support. The tone is essentially: our work matters, so funders should give us what we need.

That sparked the thorniest disagreement Eric and Jonathan have had on the show. Jonathan's take is blunt: nonprofits need to stop treating funders as fuel for their missions and start treating them like customers. Not in a transactional way, but in the way a great customer success team operates, deeply understanding what success looks like for the individual program officer. 

He's so committed to this idea that he's stopped pursuing competitive grants entirely, opting instead for a relationship-first approach. 

Eric agrees with the pragmatism, but he can't let the systemic critique go unspoken. These are organizations with massive tax advantages hoarding wealth, spending down the legal minimum, and investing in ways that sometimes directly contradict their stated missions. Trust-based philanthropy is a structural response to a power dynamic that's been broken for decades. 

Eric draws a parallel to his own decision to stop doing RFPs at Cosmic, and Jonathan admits his approach might be its own quiet act of resistance. 

Most fundraisers live in this tension every day… they just don't say it out loud.

Episode Highlights: 

[00:02:00] Why funders should be treated like customers, not fuel 
[00:06:30] Why Jonathan gave up on competitive grants entirely 
[00:08:00] Eric's pushback: isn't this a broken system? 
[00:20:00] Whose job is it to fix philanthropy?

Notable Quotes: 

[00:05:25]: "If I deeply understand what my funders are trying to do, that puts me in a position where I'm actually seen as an ally and a partner rather than a hungry mouth to feed." Jonathan Hicken 

[00:23:00]: "If you're commenting on systems change, fantastic. Let it rip. If you're talking about actually going after money, the entitlement tone is hurting all of us." Jonathan Hicken

Hosted by Eric Ressler, Founder & Creative Director of Cosmic, with co-host Jonathan Hicken, Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. New episodes every Tuesday.

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