The Importance of Practicing Personal Gratitude in Charity Fundraising
Fundraising for your charity or organization can be stressful. It’s difficult to set aside the feelings of stress and anxiety when you’re hyper-focused on the future.
Gratitude can help you gain a peaceful mindset, leading you to have better control over your stress level. In return, you’ll be happier and work more efficiently towards your fundraising goals.
So how does one practice personal gratitude and how impactful is it to Charity Fundraising? We’ll answer those questions and more below.
Importance of Personal Gratitude in Charity Fundraising
Gratitude in its simplest form is the act of being thankful.
Several studies have shown that practicing gratitude leads to several physical and mental health benefits. When someone has gratitude extended towards them, it often leaves them with feelings of warmth and kindness that can lead to other forms of generosity. The same applies when you practice personal gratitude.
Here are the two biggest ways personal gratitude impacts Charity Fundraising:
Gratitude Improves the Relationships You’re Building
Practicing personal gratitude impacts how you interact with your charity funders.
Personal gratitude allows you to be more mindful of your intentions and removes mixed feelings of toxic emotions, resentment and frustration that everyone experiences from time to time. Practicing personal gratitude, especially while interacting with foundations and charity funders, allows you to focus on establishing and nurturing a strong and positive relationship.
Gratitude Increases Your Mental Strength
The feelings that gratitude evokes not only reduce stress but can help you improve your mental strength. As a charity fundraiser, facing rejection is a part of the job and it can take its toll when it happens repeatedly.
Taking the time to recognize how much you have to be thankful for builds resilience during times when you feel like all you’ve heard from foundations is “No”.
Ways to Practice Personal Gratitude
There are several ways you can practice personal gratitude in charity fundraising regularly. Although some take more time than others, it’s important to set aside a bit of time each day or week to practice personal gratitude.
Here are a few of the ways you can practice gratitude while working in charity fundraising:
- Use a Gratitude Journal – write down three things you’re grateful for at the start of each day. This will allow you to start the day on a positive note.
- Take Time to be Grateful – set aside time every day to thank people. You can say it in person, in an email or make a note to thank them later. No matter how small the reason, you should take the time to thank someone for helping you, whether they helped directly or indirectly.
- Meditate or Count Your Blessings – meditate or keep a mental gratitude journal to practice your personal gratitude.
On an organizational level, you can establish a culture of personal gratitude and encourage other people around you to participate in this mindset as well. As a result, your charity’s morale will be stronger as a whole!
Grant Advance – Simplifying the Grant Application Process
At Grant Advance, we understand what it’s like working in the charity fundraising industry. Rejection can be discouraging, and not meeting your goals can be frustrating. This is why we’ve built our platform at Grant Advance.
We’re here to provide you with the right tools and resources to help you succeed in creating an effective fundraising campaign. For instance, with our Grant Search Engine, you can browse through every foundation in Canada and gather all the information you need. Using our Grant Secretary, you can also keep track of your progress and details about your efforts.
Choosing to work with Grant Advance means gaining access to our simple funding solution: a platform that will transform your charity fundraising strategy. Contact us today for a Complimentary Grant Research and Strategy Session to find out how we can help your charity secure more funding, and fund your ambition!
