Archive for the 'Community Engagement' Category

We Don’t Do That… Do We?

Sea gull sitting on a fake sea gullA thought occurred to me today, as I was reading a post from yet another well-meaning business person wanting to donate his skills to a “nonprofit” because those “poor nonprofits” so badly need business skills.
Well-meaning. Patronizing. Maddening.
We all see varying degrees of this in individuals and institutions who speak from their self-appointed place of wisdom to teach us “poor nonprofits” how the big kids do stuff.
We know they mean well, but still we feel defensive, angry. We think things like,
You want to teach us? We accomplish more with a single dollar than you could accomplish with ten times that amount!”
We think, “You think we don’t know what we’re doing? You try this job and see how long you last, Mr. I’ve-Made-A-Million-Bucks-So-I’m-Obviously-Smarter-Than-You.”
We think, “Another savior in a suit? Didn’t we have one of those mess up everything last year? Now we need another one?”
We think all kinds of defensive, how-dare-you, put-upon thoughts.
And what do we say in return?  Mostly we say, “Thank you. We would love to have your help. We appreciate everything you are doing for us.”
Time to Look in the Mirror
I learned a long time ago that what I find annoying in others is something I am probably doing myself.  The more annoying I find it, the more I’m likely to be doing the same thing.
And so maybe it’s because my podcast interview with Brett McNaught from buildOn is still fresh in my mind.
Or maybe it’s because I’ve been reading The Revolution Will Not Be Funded, a compilation of unabashedly radical essays that suggest the only road to change is by the people themselves.
Or maybe it’s because last week’s #NPCons twitter chat was about Working from Abundance. And that for ninety minutes, some of the smartest people I know talked about what it means to build on the strengths of our communities, the strengths of our consulting clients, the strengths of ourselves as consultants.
Or maybe it’s because one of the people in that #NPCons chat was Dan Duncan, a faculty member of the Asset Based Community Development Institute – the organizational heir of Saul Alinsky’s work.
Or maybe it’s the workshop I taught in Phoenix last week, focused entirely on community engagement as the road to sustainability of mission and vision. Maybe it’s the effect of watching 70 people in one of the most conservative cities in the whole U.S.A. - many of them professional fundraisers - become excited, even if only for a moment, about community organizing as the only logical road to lasting community change (and lasting program stability).
Whatever it is, it has hit me that many (most?) organizations treat our communities precisely the way we resent being treated by those well-meaning but glaringly out-of-touch business people.
WordPlay
To test my theory, let’s change just the person speaking in my opening scenario, and see if that shoe doesn’t fit.  Imagine that I am not a consultant or the founder of an organization resenting the intrusion of business people who think they know it all.
Imagine instead I am a neighborhood person living in a “low income barrio neighborhood.”
I was reading a note from yet another well-meaning organization wanting to bring  their skills to the neighborhood because we “poor people” so badly need help.
I know they mean well, but I got so angry! I thought, “You want to teach me? I accomplish more with a single dollar than you could accomplish with ten times that amount!”
I thought, “You think we don’t know what we’re doing? You try to live our lives every day, and see how long you last, Ms. I-Have-A-Degree-In-Social-Work-So-I’m-Obviously-Smarter-Than-You.”
I thought, “Another savior in a suit? Didn’t we have one of those mess up everything last year? Now we need another one?”
I confess, I thought all kinds of defensive, how-dare-you, put-upon thoughts.
And what did I say in return?  I said what we always say. “Thank you. We would love to have your help. We appreciate everything you are doing for us.”
Just as we resent being told by the business world how to do our work, perhaps it’s time we take a good long look in the mirror.
The communities we “serve” – is that what they need? Do they need us to come in and “help” and “serve”? Has that created lasting change?
Or do they instead need someone who can help them see their own strengths – just one among many other resources they use to build their own lives?
For me it comes down to a statement that has haunted me since I read it in The Revolution Will Not Be Funded.
“Instead of imagining domestic violence survivors who could organize on their own behalf, antiviolence organizations viewed them only as clients in need of services.”
And isn’t this what we resent the business world for?
Again, let’s rephrase and see if the shoe fits:
Instead of imagining Community Benefit Organizations who can effectively work and thrive on their own behalf, business people see only “nonprofits” in need of service.
Physician Heal Thyself
I have written quite a bit about community engagement.
I have written that the tokenism approach boards take regarding “diversity” is really a symptom of a lack of deep engagement – that if the Community were creating the programs WITH an organization, that the issue of diversity would magically disappear, as community members would BE the organization.
I have written about my own personal experience, repeated so many times over the years, where “low income” community members provide financial support for a service they feel is theirs, feel provides them with something they need and want.  We saw it when we built and ran the Diaper Bank in Tucson – school kids on the “poor” side of town raising more money in pennies than kids on the “rich” side of town raised in $10’s and $20’s.
Which leads me back to the realization I had long ago – that what I find annoying in others is something I am probably doing myself. As we consider what it feels like to resent the well-meaning but patronizing business person who believes he knows better than we do, perhaps it is time to consider how much of those same assumptions and behaviors we are guilty of ourselves.
Photo: “Do I Do That?” shot at Fleur’s Cafe, Moeraki, New Zealand

Beginner’s Mind for Fundraisers

Cicada Wing

An organization Dimitri and I love is about to die.

Everyone says it is a casualty of the economy. We know that is not true.

Even when times were good, the ABC Group was struggling. And so five years ago, when we were teaching an earlier version of our “Building Engaged Support for Your Mission” workshop – the one we did in Phoenix just last week – the ABC Group sent three people – a board member, the ED, and their Development Director – to see if perhaps this was an approach that could sustain them.

The premise of that workshop hasn’t changed in all the years since the ABC Group attended.

Money is not the most effective aspect of building strength. The most effective aspects are those that simultaneously build community strength while building organizational strength.

At the workshop five years ago, the ABC Group’s ED and board member were both enthusiastic about seeing the entire spectrum of “building support” through a different lens. However both were deferring to the development director – a woman with years of experience and a great fundraising reputation.

And sadly the development director found the whole day useless.

Not that she said that. But she sat apart throughout the whole day, sporting a bored “I don’t need this – I already know my job” look. At one point she shared with us that this was all well and good, but that their organization was different.

Several times in the years between that workshop and today, the ED called us in desperation. Each time we offered to assist for free, to help the group move away from traditional fundraising, and to implement what we had taught at the workshop. Each time those offers languished as the group chose to keep doing what they already knew.

Last month I received a mass email from the group. It said they needed $50,000 to keep their doors open just for that month. Their funding was gone. Most of their staff was gone.

This is one of our favorite organizations in the world, with a unique mission we love. And it is about to die.

******

Last year, we were doing a workshop on governance, when a woman from the XYZ Organization approached us. “I never properly thanked you,” she said.

“I was at a workshop you did in Phoenix 5 years ago. We had just opened our doors, and I knew I had a lot to learn.

I came home and followed every single thing you suggested. Today our budget is $2 million and we are growing strong, even in this economy.”

Yes, you guessed it; the woman from XYZ was at the same workshop the ABC Group attended and ignored.

******

Last week, I taught that same workshop in Phoenix. While we have certainly added rich layers to the workshop over the years, our core philosophical premise has not changed.

This time, though, I had the image of those two groups in my mind. And so I asked the group the following question:

What will it take for you to do something different
than the way you’ve always done it?

And will you?

Zen Master Shunryu Suzuki is often quoted as saying, “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few.”

The minute we think, “I already know that,” learning and possibility stop.

So how can we find the kind of Beginner’s Mind that led the XYZ Organization to its long-term success? One of the easiest routes to Beginner’s Mind is to leave behind your search for answers, and to begin asking new questions.

For years, organizations have been asking the same question:

“How can we raise the money we need?”

Asking that same question over and over, it is no surprise the answer changes only to the extent that it patches a new trick or tool onto the same old assumptions.

So then what might different questions look like, as we seek Beginner’s Mind in our quest for building engaged support for the work we are doing? Let’s start with these (and then let’s add to this list!):

• What brings strength to any endeavor? Which endeavors endure for dozens and hundreds of years vs. those that fall by the wayside? What is it those successful endeavors have in common?

• How can we ensure our programs will build a strong community?

• Do we see community members as individuals who can gather together to create their own support systems, or do we see them as clients we must help, who cannot otherwise help themselves (and certainly cannot help “us”)?

• What would it look like if our programs were built by and sustained by the community that will benefit from those programs?

• What if there were no such thing as programs? Is there a different way to get the end results we want to see in our communities?

Yes, these are the kinds of questions that shake up everything. That is what Beginner’s Mind is all about! By starting back at the beginning-before-the-beginning, we may just catch a glimpse of a more effective path.

So what questions can YOU think of? What questions shake up your thinking? What questions seek to find what builds strength, period?

As you will see in the video, if we seek what builds strength in one place, we may be surprised the extent to which the very same things build strength into everything we do.

So please, share your questions. Let’s open our minds and create possibility for building support for our work in all new ways. Let’s find our Beginner’s Mind.

To learn more about different ways to think about “traditional fundraising” vs. building engaged strength, this article provides a good comparison.

To those viewing this post in an email reader, the video that follows can be found at this link. Or just click through to the blog and watch it there!

Finding Great Clients (or Donors. Or…)

One of the 2010 goals for the Community-Driven Institute is to aim the dialogue in this sector more towards what is possible than what is wrong.  As part of that effort, we facilitate a monthly Twitter chat for consultants to Community Benefit Organizations.  Every month, consultants from all over the world share their wisdom and ideas and experience – and questions – to grow together as we do this world-changing work.

Yesterday’s chat was about finding great clients. At the end of the chat, as folks shared their Key Learnings, I was struck by how applicable those observations would be to any relationship – not just finding great consulting clients.

Here is what folks shared there:

  • Great clients start with our own mindset and approach.
  • Clients as partners.
  • Relationships with clients are relationships. Date the ones with potential!
  • If we are authentic in sharing who we are and what we have to offer, great clients will find us
  • You can “attract” great clients, but you also still have to go where they are. We will still meet and talk about vision/values.

The discussion considered the fact that “great” clients are really only great because there is a fit between our own strengths, our own passion, our own values and goals as consultants.

So what might happen if we substituted the word “donor” for client in all those observations above?  Does the same hold true?

  • Great donors start with the organization’s own mindset and approach (Yes!)
  • Donors as partners (Yes!)
  • Relationships with donors are relationships. Date the ones with potential (Oh yes!)
  • If we are authentic in sharing who we are and what we have to offer, great donors will find us (Yes again)
  • You can “attract” great donors, but you also still have to go where they are. We will still meet and talk about vision/values. (Yup.)

Try it with the word employees. Or board members.

I cannot help but smile that when it comes to relationships that matter, the truth is the truth is the truth.  Has this been your experience with donors / clients / employees as well?