Hotdurgers

There’s not much I love more than a big family cookout.  God bless my husband for cooking over a hot grill in the dog days of summer.  By the surprised look on the ‘face’ of our grill, even it was stunned that someone would be standing over a fiery Char-Broil in the summer heat.  But that’s what a man who loves his family does and I love him for it.

But I had to laugh when I realized that the grill face resembles my own face when I ponder why, in 2023, they still sell packages of 8 hot dog buns yet packages of 10 hot dogs.  Seriously, folks, what kind of conspiracy is this anyway?  Do they think people will just grab a cold hot dog out of the fridge and eat it like my brother does? That’s just gross.  Or do they assume that kids will simply prefer hot dogs without buns, so they only give us 8, so we won’t waste any bread? Trust me, even with the buns, kids waste the bread—so that can’t be it!  But, one summer when our boys were little, I accidentally outsmarted this evil bread scheme.  It was a hot day just like we’ve had recently, and several kids were outside playing in our yard.  I asked if they were hungry and heard a roar of hungry cheers.  Hamburgers, I asked?  Another round of roars.  Then, I discovered that while I had plenty of hamburger, I had no hamburger buns.  Ugh!  Alas, I had plenty of hotdog buns!  Perfect.  No need to stop all the summer playing for a trip to the store.  But there was a need for a tidbit of creativity.  Dare I say, Marketing Moxie?

Thus, why I always tell you that I’m more like McGyver than Martha Stewart--all day long and on Sundays. So, I fashioned the hamburgers in the shape of hotdogs, cooked ‘em up, and served them on hotdog buns.  Ta-da, problem solved!  Hotdurgers! Or is it Hamdoggers?  All I know for sure is that the kids were fed, full, and had fun.  I have no idea what they told their parents when they went home.  But these would be the same kids we fed periodically for a decade or more—bags filled with dollar menu McDonald’s fodder, Untidy Josephs, and miles worth of Fruit by the Foot.  I miss those days, but that spontaneous creativity stays with me as a constant reminder.

It was also an interesting metaphor of how generosity works in the real world.  Since Christmas comes in December, some save their charitable giving for the end of the year.  But, for others a good time might be March or August or any other month for that matter.  Giving is not one-size-fits-all—you should help them take advantage of it when the time is right for them, not you.  If you’re not sure, just ask them, they’ll tell you!

And just like me with the hotdurgers, sometimes you have to think outside the bun.  You don’t have to do things just like your friend or colleague or the nonprofit next door. Giving might look different for your donors and your community than it does for others and that’s ok!  Your Left Brain Marketing Method logically says you should make asks at all times of the year—not just one ask one time and not just an end-of-year giving ask. Ask early, ask often, as a friend of mine used to say. Let them give when it makes the most sense for them. 

And your Right Brain Marketing Moxie should be screaming that you must use what you have to craft a giving strategy that leverages your resources and still gets the job done.  Maybe you have 100 Give Where You Live stickers or 500 manilla envelopes. If you want your donors to give to you, show them that you are a good steward of all your resources—whether that be an excess of bubble wrap or hot dog buns.  Then make an ask that allows them to leverage what they have to give. That might be a named endowed fund—wouldn’t you love to work with a donor to make that a reality.  Or it might be through a donation to your Unrestricted Fund—by explaining how they can be a part of your annual grantmaking. Maybe they have kids in college so leaving you as a percentage beneficiary of their retirement fund makes the most sense right now. Heck, maybe they’re super young and don’t have a ton of discretionary income, so making you the owner of an insurance policy that’s easy for them to get since they’re so healthy.

All this generosity helps others, and all are easily do-able through a Community Foundation.  And none will elicit a startled look of surprise like my grill had—that look is reserved for my husband and my team when I say that I just got a weird idea or had a dream. But they say that necessity is the mother of invention. So, maybe the very invention you need will come in the form of a weird idea, a dream, or a delicious hotdurger.  Who am I to judge? Besides, I learned that some weird ideas are delicious.

All My Best,

Dawn
[email protected]
dawn brown creative, llc.