San Antonio Fun Raising

My one-day journey to San Antonio with Jana Mullins of Rockwell Fund and my colleague Shuchi Sharma was both filling and fun. Trips to San Antonio often are.
                The local chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals invited Jana and me to lunch with 60-plus members, asking that we reimburse them by sharing our stories and maybe a lesson or two garnered during our years of nonprofit work.
                It might go without saying, but San Antonio fundraisers are quite different from their Houston counterparts. They appear more relaxed, open-minded and inclined to enjoy their work than we are here. But we all had fun, and that’s precisely what the Alamo City’s AFP members wanted.
                Jana shared a lot about her book, Open Hands (http://www.amazon.com/Open-Hands-Lessons-Giving-Receiving/dp/193397933X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264189864&sr=1-1) and I followed with a presentation on Five Principles that I contend can revolutionize development success for nonprofits. I might have provided little more than meringue for Jana’s pie! But attendees certainly left the luncheon filled with information and inspiration. We did, too.
                It interests me to learn how different two professional groups can be in nature, even when working only a few hours apart. The experience suggests to me that the two AFP chapters could gain a lot from having joint functions, where fundraisers might learn about what’s happening just down Interstate 10.
                Everything's the same, and it's all different.