I had the opportunity to talk with a friend of mine from Camp Good Life Project, Stephen Warley of Life Skills that Matter, earlier this week. During our discussion, he challenged me to take a step back and look at what I BELIEVE.
I love stuff like this, as anyone whom I’ve ever retreated with knows. And it was a great challenge to take a sacred pause and look at what I’ve come to believe after 20 years of working with and in nonprofits.
This is my list TODAY (September 7, 2018) and I reserve the right to update, change, and grow as I spend more time working with amazing organizations doing incredible things.
What do you believe?
I believe in kindness
I believe in generosity
I believe change is the only constant
I believe that people are doing the best they can
I believe that nonprofits are a democratizing force within a world in flux
I believe in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
I believe giving back changes the way we view ourselves in relationship to others
I believe the reason nonprofits struggle is because they do not always scale or plan
I believe that most fundraisers are not data people and most data people are not fundraisers
I believe that databases serve as mirrors to organizations
I believe that we need to pay nonprofit staff a living wage
I believe that without good information around their performance and potential funders, nonprofits will not survive
I believe that donors should be treated as heroes (because they ARE)
I believe that we cannot keep doing what we’ve always done in fundraising
I believe in quality of engagement over quantity of outreach
I believe that we have an obligation to be transparent with their donors about budget, expenditures, and challenges
I believe in flexibility and change
AND – most of all…
I believe in the power of ideas