“What’s love got to do, got to do with it? What’s love, but a secondhand emotion.” 🎶❤️🔥
We are all sometimes a victim of our emotions. But what happens in the love affair of giving?
Love, heart, feelings, all of that, in an industry that pulls at heartstrings for support, inspired me to create Emotional Industry. So it’s hard not to relate to the heart image when we are encouraged to share our love in charitable ways.
It’s pretty clear that the charitable sector has a special relationship to the heart – which is what many argue is the main and most important reason for giving. Most organizations have at some point, or as a regular feature, made appeals to the heart. Of donors.
And at the same time, it is also where the road ends for many organizations. In an environment where accountability and effectiveness are necessary concepts, not being able to show stringency, professionalism, and results will inevitably be a detriment to fundraising efforts.
It is not difficult to imagine what these juxtaposed ideals may lead to.
In essence, it is a conflict of sorts, to appeal to people’s feelings to support your fellow man, woman, or child or any other worthy cause; and at the same time, when organizations invest in human capital with hearts attached, they are expected to deploy cold-hearted business practices to manage it all.
This week Valentine’s Day came up on the calendar. A day of showing heartfelt care and concern; love and com/passion; and everything in between. Often, it’s also a day of heartache, of loneliness, of abandonment, even.
Most people have mixed feelings around this day, and likely depending on where we are on the contingency of relationships, not the least with ourselves, it can be a tough 24 hours.
But in the service of others’ hearts, we can also express self-care and simply be kind. The heart energy is known to multiply and will undoubtedly achieve results, although perhaps not the easiest to measure.
In service of an emotional industry - keep feeling, and keep knowing why.
Photo: iMessage heart feature