“Those who are happiest are those who do the most for others.”
Booker T. Washington
Donors. They’re not bankers. They’re builders. They don’t invest for financial gain, they invest for impact. They’re planting seeds—not in the market, but in the fertile ground of change.
Donors aren’t shareholders clutching a ticket to a financial carousel. They’re visionaries, holding a key to a brighter tomorrow. The dividends they seek aren’t wrapped in dollar signs, but in progress. A smile on a child’s face. A community rebuilt. A family restored. That’s their currency.
Think of them as gardeners, not gold miners. They don’t sift through dirt for nuggets, they sow seeds and nurture growth. The blossoming flower, the towering tree, the thriving ecosystem—that’s their gold.
The yield they expect isn’t a profit margin. It’s an impact radius. Their return on investment is measured not in market gains—but in lives touched, futures shaped, worlds bettered. Their bottom line? Making a difference.
So, let’s redefine ROI. For donors, ROI isn’t Return on Investment. It’s Return on Impact. And our task as those who work in and around nonprofits? It’s to make sure their impact echoes, resonates, and ripples out into the world.
Turn their seeds into forests. Transform their investments into legacies. That’s the return they’re after.
