{"id":45,"date":"2008-11-03T13:28:08","date_gmt":"2008-11-03T18:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thinkstick.dreamhosters.com\/?p=45"},"modified":"2008-11-03T13:28:08","modified_gmt":"2008-11-03T18:28:08","slug":"in-defense-of-raising-money-a-manifesto-for-nonprofit-ceos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thinkstick.dreamhosters.com\/2008\/11\/in-defense-of-raising-money-a-manifesto-for-nonprofit-ceos\/","title":{"rendered":"In Defense of Raising Money: a Manifesto for NonProfit CEOs"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I wish I had written this. Sasha did. Check him out<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sick of apologizing for being in charge of raising money.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

I work at a great nonprofit organization<\/a> (1) that is doing great things in the world, one that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attacking daunting problems in a powerful new way.\u00c2\u00a0 I believe in what we do, and think that we may be catalyzing a shift in how the world fights poverty.<\/p>\n

So why did one of my mentors \u00e2\u20ac\u201c someone with a lot of experience in the non-profit and public sector \u00e2\u20ac\u201c tell me not to take this job?\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Be careful,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get pigeon-holed.\u00c2\u00a0 Once a fundraiser, always a fundraiser.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

He misunderstood what job I was taking.<\/p>\n

Look around you at great leaders who you know or respect.\u00c2\u00a0 What do they spend their time doing?\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 They are infused with drive, passion, vision, commitment, and energy.\u00c2\u00a0 They walk through the world dissatisfied with the status quo.\u00c2\u00a0 They talk to anyone who will listen about the change they want to see the world.\u00c2\u00a0 And they build a team and an organization that is empowered to make that change.<\/p>\n

How good is your idea?\u00c2\u00a0 How important is your cause?\u00c2\u00a0 Important enough that you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve given up another life to lead this life.\u00c2\u00a0 You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve given up another job, another steady paycheck, another bigger paycheck to do this all day long, every day, for years if not for decades, to make a change in the world and to right a wrong.<\/p>\n

How much is your time worth?\u00c2\u00a0 Start at the low end: if, instead, you had worked at a big company or started your own company or worked at an investment bank or a consulting firm, how much money would the world pay you for your skills?\u00c2\u00a0 A few hundred thousand dollars?\u00c2\u00a0 A few million dollars?\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s your baseline.\u00c2\u00a0 Now ask yourself: how important is the problem you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re trying to solve?\u00c2\u00a0 Are you trying to make sure that women have a safe, affordable place to give birth?\u00c2\u00a0 Creating a way for people to have clean drinking water so they and their children don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fall ill? Protecting refugees from genocide?\u00c2\u00a0 Providing after school tutoring for at-risk kids?\u00c2\u00a0 Giving people with chronic disease a place to come together and support one another?\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Sounds pretty important.<\/p>\n

Our political system is mostly broken, but the fact that candidates have to go out and convince millions of people to get out and pull a lever for them matters.\u00c2\u00a0 This communication defines the terms of the debate; it defines what issues will and won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get addressed.\u00c2\u00a0 And it defines accountability.\u00c2\u00a0 If Barack Obama really becomes President of the United States, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t you think he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be just a little bit more accountable to the one million people who donated directly to his campaign?<\/p>\n

What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s your theory of change?\u00c2\u00a0 How much change happens through the services you deliver?\u00c2\u00a0 And how much change happens by convincing the rest of the world that the problem you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re trying to address, and the way you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re trying to address it, is worth paying attention to?\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s both, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not either\/or.<\/p>\n

Breast cancer has an unbelievable level of awareness in the United States, definitely ahead of all other cancers.\u00c2\u00a0 Yet breast cancer is actually the 5th leading cause of cancer death in the United States, behind lung, stomach, liver and colon cancer.(2)\u00c2\u00a0 So why does it get the most attention and the most funding?\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because of Nancy Brinker.<\/p>\n

Nancy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s older sister Susan Komen died of breast cancer in 1980, at the age of 36, three years after being diagnosed with breast cancer.\u00c2\u00a0 In her sister\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s memory, Nancy Brinker created the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, which has since raised $1 billion for breast cancer research, education and health services \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and promised to raise another $2 billion in the next decade. Breast cancer research is the best-funded of all cancers,(3) and that is because of Nancy Brinker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s leadership.\u00c2\u00a0 Nancy decided that fighting breast cancer was worth fighting for.\u00c2\u00a0 Because of her efforts, drastically more resources (public and private) are in play to find a cure. <\/p>\n

This is not about competition for resources, this is about increasing the size of the pie.\u00c2\u00a0 We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen an unprecedented growth in global wealth in the last two decades: there are currently 95,000 ultra-high net worth individuals in the world \u00e2\u20ac\u201c people with $30 million or more of investable assets.4\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 On top of that, there are more than $60 trillion worth of investment assets in the market today, with an increasing amount of this money thinking more long-term about the big problems facing the world: energy and water scarcity, greenhouse gases, global commodity shortages, healthcare and education delivery, poverty alleviation\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6you name it.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

The allocation of these resources matters.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Convincing the most powerful, resource-rich people you know that allocating some of their capital to the issues you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re addressing matters.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re devoting your life, your spirit, your energy, your faith into making the vision you have of a better future into a reality.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

So why are you so scared to ask people for money?\u00c2\u00a0 Why do you feel afraid to say: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153This problem is so important and so urgent that it is worth your time and your money to fix it.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m devoting my whole life to fixing this problem.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m asking you to devote some of your resources to my life\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work too.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Maybe it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because:<\/p>\n

1.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 People think that asking for money is all about asking for money.\u00c2\u00a0 It is and it isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t.\u00c2\u00a0 Most of the time it is about inspiring someone to see the world the way you do \u00e2\u20ac\u201c with the same understanding of the problems and the same vision of how it can be overcome \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and convincing them that you and your organization can actually make that vision into a reality.\u00c2\u00a0 The resources come second.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

2.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 People think that storytelling is a gift, not a skill.\u00c2\u00a0 Learning how to do this \u00e2\u20ac\u201c to be an effective storyteller, to consistently connect with different people from different walks of life and convince them to see the world as you do and walk with you to a better future \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is hard, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a skill like any other.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s true that some people are born with it.\u00c2\u00a0 But it still can be learned and practiced, and if your nonprofit is going to succeed, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d better have more than one or two people who can pull this off.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

3.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 Money = Power.\u00c2\u00a0 Our society has done a spectacular job of creating enormous amounts of wealth.\u00c2\u00a0 At the same time, wealth is associated with power, and not having wealth can feel like not having power.\u00c2\u00a0 So going to someone who has money and saying, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You have the resources, please give some of them to me\u00e2\u20ac\u009d doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel like a conversation between equals.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

How about this instead: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You are incredibly good at making money.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m incredibly good at making change.\u00c2\u00a0 The change I want to make in the world, unfortunately, does not itself generate much money.\u00c2\u00a0 But man oh man does it make change.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a hugely important change.\u00c2\u00a0 And what I know about making this change is as good and as important as what you know about making money.\u00c2\u00a0 So let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s divide and conquer \u00e2\u20ac\u201c you keep on making money, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll keep on making change. And if you can lend some of your smarts to the change I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m trying to make, well that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s even better.\u00c2\u00a0 But most of the time, we both keep on doing what we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re best at, and if we keep on working together the world will be a better place.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

4.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m terrified you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll say \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcno.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 We all hate rejection.\u00c2\u00a0 Being rejected when asking for money is a double whammy.\u00c2\u00a0 You were already scared to ask, and then the person said no.\u00c2\u00a0 They have all the power.\u00c2\u00a0 You walk away, head down, empty hat in hand.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Get over it.\u00c2\u00a0 You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re still devoting your life to this work.\u00c2\u00a0 You shared an idea with someone.\u00c2\u00a0 You didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t convince them today, but you probably got their attention.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll convince them tomorrow.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll tell a friend.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe you learned something that will make your pitch better the next time.\u00c2\u00a0 At least you got your story out there to the right person.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

You made a change \u00e2\u20ac\u201c you just didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get any money in return.<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve met too many nonprofit CEOs who say \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I hate fundraising.\u00c2\u00a0 I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fundraise.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re being hired as a nonprofit CEO and the Board tells you that you won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be fundraising, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re either misguided or lying.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Tell them they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re wrong.\u00c2\u00a0 Tell them that your job as a CEO is to be an evangelist for your idea and to convince others about the change you want to see in the world.\u00c2\u00a0 Tell them that if this idea is worth supporting then they should jump in with both feet and support it with their time and money and by telling their friends it is worth supporting.<\/p>\n

Spending your time talking to powerful, influential people about the change you hope to see in the world is a pretty far cry from having fundraising as a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153necessary evil.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Do you really believe that the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153real work\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is JUST the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153programs\u00e2\u20ac\u009d you operate?\u00c2\u00a0 (the school you run; the meals you serve; the vaccines you develop; the patients you treat?)\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0Do you really believe that it ends there?\u00c2\u00a0 Do you really believe that in today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s world, where change can come from anyone and anywhere, that convincing people and building momentum and excitement and a movement really doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t matter?\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Of course your programs or investments are real work.\u00c2\u00a0 But so is evangelizing, communicating, sharing, convincing, cajoling, and arm-twisting.\u00c2\u00a0 So are videos and images and stories and ideas.<\/p>\n

If your ideas and programs and people and vision are so great, shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t people be willing to reach into their pockets and fund them?\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0If it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s worth spending your life doing this work, shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t you or someone in your organization be able to convince someone else that the work is worth supporting?<\/p>\n

In the for-profit world, nothing happens if you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a compelling product with a compelling story that wins out in the marketplace of ideas and gets people to act.\u00c2\u00a0 People get so excited about Apple\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s products that they blog about the next release, scour the Internet for registered patents, spread ideas and rumors about what is coming next, and convince the people around them that Apple = cool.\u00c2\u00a0 Do you think this would happen without Steve Jobs living and breathing the brand each and every day?<\/p>\n

So how is it that in the nonprofit sector we create this illusion that growth and change and impact can happen absent this kind of energy and engagement?\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s this unspoken idea floating around that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153fundraisers\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can go about their work in a vacuum, having quiet, unimportant conversations with nameless, faceless rich people, while all the while the people who do the real work (the program folks) can go about their business, separate from and unconnected to this conversation.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

What a waste.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t you think that creating a tribe5 of connected, engaged, passionate evangelists for your cause will create a positive feedback loop that will amplify the change you hope to see in the world?\u00c2\u00a0 It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t matter if that tribe is 300 powerful, smart, wealthy people or 3 million regular folks who believe in you and the change you hope to make.\u00c2\u00a0 If they are passionate and engaged and you give them a way to help, you will amplify your impact.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

If nothing else, then, we need a new word.\u00c2\u00a0 Fundraising is about a transaction \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I raise funds from you, you get nothing in return.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d rather be an evangelist, a storyteller, an educator, a translator, a table-pounder, a guy on his soap box, a woman with a megaphone, a candidate for change.\u00c2\u00a0 I want to talk to as many people as I can about my ideas \u00e2\u20ac\u201c whether in person or in newsletters or on Facebook or Twitter or in the Economist or at the TED conference or at Davos \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and capture their imagination about the change I hope to see in the world.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t you?<\/p>\n

—-
1 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s called Acumen Fund (www.acumenfund.org<\/a> or http:\/\/blog.acumenfund.org).
2 http:\/\/www.who.int\/mediacentre\/factsheets\/fs297\/en\/index.html<\/a>
3 http:\/\/www.cancer.gov\/cancertopics\/factsheet\/NCI\/research-funding<\/a> or http:\/\/well.blogs.nytimes.com\/2008\/03\/06\/cancer-funding-does-it-add-up\/<\/a>
4 http:\/\/www.us.capgemini.com\/worldwealthreport07\/State_of_the_World_Wealth_2007.pdf<\/a> . Though the October 2008 crash may have affected these numbers somewhat, there is still a lot of wealth out there.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n<\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a>\n<\/div>\n

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Published by <\/td>\n\n\t\t\"Published<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

Original source : http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/typepad\/sethsmainbl…<\/a><\/div>\n

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I wish I had written this. Sasha did. Check him out. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sick of apologizing for being in charge of raising money.\u00c2\u00a0 I work at a great nonprofit organization (1) that is doing great things in the world, one that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attacking daunting problems in a powerful new way.\u00c2\u00a0 I believe in what we do, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thinkstick.dreamhosters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thinkstick.dreamhosters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thinkstick.dreamhosters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thinkstick.dreamhosters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thinkstick.dreamhosters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/thinkstick.dreamhosters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thinkstick.dreamhosters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thinkstick.dreamhosters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thinkstick.dreamhosters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}