You might remember MacGyver, the action-adventure series that aired for seven seasons in the late 80s and early 90s. The title character was a secret agent who never carried a weapon more dangerous than a Swiss Army Knife. Yet each week, he always managed to escape life-or-death situations by fashioning an explosive device out of a paper clip, some aluminum foil, a bottle of Windex, and a roll of duct tape.

In a small nonprofit shop, we often feel like MacGyver – asked to come up with cheap, clever fundraising solutions to seemingly unsolvable problems at the last second. While we usually survive and move on to the next challenge, it’s hard not to imagine how successful we might be if we were simply given the right tools for the job.

Understaffing your fundraising department and then expecting it to pull off minor miracles is a recipe for disaster, especially in challenging economic times. In my nearly two decades in the philanthropic sector, I’ve encountered innumerable organizations that ask their executive directors or Boards to tackle tough fundraising tasks without the necessary expertise, training, or support. While we might scrape by with this approach, the problem with asking your development team to do more with less is, eventually, we expect them to do everything with nothing.

If this sounds like an all-too-familiar plot line for your nonprofit, consider undergoing a fundraising audit. This kind of capacity assessment – overseen by an experienced, third-party professional – can help increase your stream of sustainable funding by identifying exactly what you need to be successful. Fundraising audits ask and answer a number of important questions, including:

1) Does your organization have an adequate staffing structure, with the right people doing the right jobs with the right tools?

2) Does the development office have the time and skills to perform all the fundraising functions it is being asked to complete?

3) Is your nonprofit organization investing in appropriate training and professional development resources for the fundraising team?

Remember that MacGyver was just a television show. In real life, he wouldn’t have survived many terrorist attacks with chewing gum, a can of WD-40, and underwire from a bra. As nonprofit leaders, we’re already asked to do the impossible.  So why make it more difficult than it needs to be?

If your nonprofit is seeking to raise more money, strengthen its leadership capacity, or develop more clarity around its mission and goals, please contact Sangha Solutions at Steve@SanghaSolutions.org for a free initial consultation.

You’re probably familiar with the movie “Speed.”  The premise is that a madman rigs a bomb to a city bus in Los Angeles.  Once armed, the bus must stay above 50 mph  - if it slows down, it will explode and kill everyone on board.  Every time I watch this movie, I find myself with one persistent thought: “Wow, isn’t that a great metaphor for life?!”

We live in a culture that prizes and rewards busyness above almost everything else.  If we’re not doing something – or, ideally, doing several things at the same time – we believe that we’re missing an opportunity to check something important off our list.  We fear that if we dare to slow down or stop, our dreams of success and happiness may self-destruct in front of our very eyes.

Nowhere is this feeling of “stay busy or die” more vivid to me than in the nonprofit world.  Almost without exception, our organizations are understaffed, overworked, and being asked to do more with less.  And while the lives of dozens of commuters may not be at stake, for those of us who are working to provide health care, education, social services, or food and shelter to our constituents, the consequences may feel just as dire.

Every December, our anxieties are heightened, as we struggle to complete our charitable solicitations, prepare for the holiday season, and call attention to the impact of our work amidst the clutter of hundreds of other year-end appeals.  More often than not, however, this frenzy of perpetual motion keeps us doing but dizzy.  We tend to lose sight of the importance of our mission while depriving ourselves of the opportunity to connect in genuine ways with our donors.

So, this month, I’d like to encourage you to develop daily habits that cultivate presence in the workplace:

1) Start each morning by calling a donor – not to ask for another contribution, but to thank them for their support and to ask why s/he has chosen to invest in your nonprofit.

2) At least once during each workday, randomly stop what you’re doing, take a deep breath, and sit for one minute.  Pay attention to any tightness or tension in your body, the primary emotions to which you’re present, and the swirl of thoughts in your mind.

3) Choose one work activity each day that brings you joy.  If that task also allows you to check something off your to-do list, that’s great!  But if not, there’s still tremendous value in rediscovering passion and joy in what you do.

When we slow down and bring presence to our work, we find that the experience of “getting things done” can be filled with new energy and life.  Unless, of course, you’re driving a bus strapped with enough C-4 to put a hole in the world.  In that case, keep the pedal to the metal.

If your nonprofit is seeking to raise more money, strengthen its leadership capacity, or develop more clarity around its mission and goals, please contact Sangha Solutions at Steve@SanghaSolutions.org for a free initial consultation.

I know that this mythical island exists.  It must, because nearly every client I’ve worked with insists that they can’t find the “right” people to serve on their volunteer Boards.

If you’re like most organizations, I’m guessing that you think your Board doesn’t have the thick checkbooks or strong networks to help win your development campaign.  But armed with the proper motivation and support, any Board can fundraise!  Start by asking  and answering these five simple questions:

1) Are you being clear and specific about fundraising expectations when recruiting new Board members?  Or do you shy away from addressing these responsibilities in a direct manner because you’re worried about scaring them off?

2) Do you meet with each Board member at the start of the fiscal year to thank them for their support and to develop a short, collaborative, and manageable fundraising plan that they can follow throughout the year?

3) Do you check in with your Board members regularly throughout the year, monitoring their progress, identifying where they’re falling short, and sharing their successes – large or small – with others?

4) For those Board members who seem reluctant to engage in fundraising, have you sat down with them and asked them why?  In other words, have you identified where their comfort zones lie and what it would take to make them feel more comfortable with fundraising for our cause?

5) Do you have advocates within your Board that can reinforce the important messaging around fundraising?  And do those advocates bolster their words through personal action and example?

When we begin to treat our Boards as genuine partners in fundraising work, listening and communicating clearly and consistently, it’s amazing what we can accomplish together.

If your nonprofit is seeking to raise more money, strengthen its leadership capacity, or develop more clarity around its mission and goals, please contact Sangha Solutions at steve@SanghaSolutions.org for a free initial consultation.

We have a strong tendency to live our lives in a contracted way.  And after a while, we begin to see ourselves as small, forgetting to lift our heads and take in the largeness of the world around us.  We forget that choices actually exist, remaining trapped in the comfortable, well-worn, and delimiting patterns of our existence.

Recently, I was thinking of Mohini while working with my nonprofit clients, many of which have small budgets and even smaller perceptions of what they can achieve.  “We don’t have a big Board of Directors or major donors,” many organizations tell me.  “There’s only so much we can do.”  And indeed, when our vision is small, our results will follow along the same path.  The task facing an effective fundraising consultant is to help a client recognize that their world might be a little bigger than what they see.  When we make that shift, when we start seeing ourselves as powerful and free from our self-imposed limitations and beliefs, there’s no telling what might happen.

If your nonprofit is seeking to raise more money, strengthen its leadership capacity, or develop more clarity around its mission and goals, please contact Sangha Solutions at steve@SanghaSolutions.org for a free initial consultation.

My carelessness wouldn’t have resulted in tremendous inconvenience if it wasn’t for the fact that my driver’s side, front-door lock had been damaged a few years ago.  So, to get into my car, I had to manually unlock the passenger door, reach all the way through the vehicle to trigger the lock release button, and then walk around to the driver’s side to get inside.  It’s been a busy few months, so it took me a few weeks to schedule an appointment with the dealership to get a new keyless remote.

In the days that followed, however, I found I had developed a new habit.  Despite the shiny keyless remote I now carried in my pocket, I instinctively began entering my car in the “new” way to which I had become accustomed.  Although it took far more energy to get into my car in this fashion, the power of habit had firmly taken root.

Most of us struggle every day in the practice of habits.  And yet we know that supportive, behavioral patterns ultimately help us achieve our personal and professional goals.  As Dr. Andrew Weil says, anything we do with repetition and emotion will become our reality.  If we are not satisfied with our current experience, we can simply examine our habits.

As nonprofit fundraisers, most of us are celebrating the end of another challenging twelve months.  As we mark the start of the New Year, I’d encourage you to signal your willingness to embrace positive change by identifying a single affirming habit that can lead your organization to success.  As for me, I’m committing myself to this new daily habit: to place one phone call to a donor at the beginning of every day to thank them for their support and let them know how their investment is making a difference.

What will your new habit be?

If your nonprofit is seeking to raise more money, strengthen its leadership capacity, or develop more clarity around its mission and goals, please contact Sangha Solutions at steve@SanghaSolutions.org for a free initial consultation.

On their way home, the mother and daughter retraced their steps past the giant building and once again found themselves walking past the old man.  But this time, his tin cup was overflowing with coins and bills.  The blind man recognized the sound of the little girl’s footsteps and called out to her.  “Are you the one who changed my sign?,”  he asked.  “Yes, sir,” the girl responded as she stopped.  “That was me.”  “What was it that you wrote?”, the man queried.  The young girl paused for a moment and replied, “I didn’t change it much,” and then walked away with her mother.

The new sign read: “Today is spring.  And I cannot see it.”

In spite of what we may believe, our success in raising money comes not from helping others we think to be less fortunate than we are.  It is does not flow from pity nor from focusing on our differences.  Instead, it arises from awakening to the relatedness that we share with all mankind.  It comes from seeing ourselves and our world in every being.

If your nonprofit is seeking to raise more money, strengthen its leadership capacity, or develop more clarity around its mission and goals, please contact Sangha Solutions at steve@SanghaSolutions.org for a free initial consultation.

Early in my gardening career, I recognized that as the weather gets cooler, it’s important to stop pinching back new growth.  This way, a plant naturally channels its energy into the soil, strengthening the root structure and ensuring it has an adequate supply of moisture during the cold, winter months.  In the late spring and early summer, however, we can start encouraging new buds, which signals the plant to divert its energy toward the stems and leaves, producing more growth and keeping it healthy and vital.

In nonprofit fundraising, as with gardening, we need to embrace cultivation.  We share our stories and successes to make sure that supporters know the difference they’ve made through giving  But it’s not enough to just tell our donors what we’re doing – sometimes, we need to encourage them to get their hands a little dirty.  We do this by engaging them in active philanthropy, creating opportunities to serve as volunteers, on committees, and alongside service recipients.   The more our supporters experience the impact of their contributions, the more likely they are to give again – and to give more.

So, as we tend our gardens, ask yourself these questions.  Are you providing ways for supporters to be involved with your organization other than writing a check?  Are you cultivating their involvement at the most critical times, but not all the time?  And are you planting the seeds that will lead to a sustainable future for your organization?  All flowers, no matter how beautiful and permanent they may seem, wither and fall.  When they do, will we have done our jobs to ensure that new growth can blossom?

If your nonprofit is seeking to raise more money, strengthen its leadership capacity, or develop more clarity around its mission and goals, please contact Sangha Solutions at steve@SanghaSolutions.org for a free initial consultation.

About five years ago, I stopped filling out brackets.  And today, I enjoy the NCAA basketball tournament more than I ever have before.

The trouble was that, in filling out my brackets, I found myself obsessed with picking the outcomes of the games instead of enjoying the natural human drama of the sport as it unfolded.  I rooted for teams I didn’t want to win, but those I thought should or would ultimately triumph.  In trying to predict the future, not only was I often wrong, but I ignored the potency of living in the present.  This week, I’ll root for the teams I hope will win – and I’ll experience a fuller appreciation for each moment of each game.

Many of us who raise dollars for our nonprofit causes suffer in the same way.  We find ourselves consumed with predicting an uncertain future instead of living and operating “in the now”.  We focus on what the economy will or won’t do six months from now, when we should be talking to our donors.  We try to guess how our Boards will react to our efforts to engage them in fundraising, instead of having open and honest conversations about their comfort levels.  And we don’t attempt to court new contributors to our organizations, because the experts tell us it’s not the right time.

While there’s a time and place to focus on the future, we are almost always more effective when we are firmly planted in this moment.  Our need to anticipate is understandable – as human beings, we’re hard-wired to constantly assess our environment for future threats and opportunities.  But in nearly two decades of experience in leading nonprofit organizations, it seems to me that the real “madness” is our relentless march toward what we can’t control and away from presence.

If your nonprofit is seeking to raise more money, strengthen its leadership capacity, or develop more clarity around its mission and goals, please contact Sangha Solutions at steve@SanghaSolutions.org for a free initial consultation.

Fear is a natural part of being alive and, as such, frequently arises when it’s time to raise money for our causes. We are afraid that it’s not the right time to ask for a gift. We are afraid we will damage friendships and working relationships. And we are afraid that people will say no. Fear is the anticipation of pain and the way we tense ourselves against an imaginary future, so the fear of rejection can be not only painful, but oftentimes personal.

In the space created by fear, we create false refuges for not making an ask. We tell ourselves that our friends will know what to do without asking for their support. We convince ourselves that others can make more effective solicitations than we can. We even allow ourselves to believe that our prospects won’t be interested in supporting our causes, in effect making these important decisions for them.

So what can we do when facing the fear of asking? Very simply, we must learn to let go. Letting go of what seems to be our lifeline is the last thing we want to do in the face of fear, because the jagged rocks and tiger’s jaws are the last places we want to be. But to truly awaken, we must let go of the tree limb and greet that fear with awareness, compassion, and understanding. By doing so, we can introduce others to our important causes. We can present opportunities – instead of obligations – for people to support our work. Most importantly, we can realize our own potential to effect lasting change both within ourselves and in our world.

If your nonprofit is seeking to raise more money, strengthen its leadership capacity, or develop more clarity around its mission and goals, please contact Sangha Solutions at steve@sanghasolutions.org for a free initial consultation.

During his lifetime, Buddha taught that taking refuge in the “sangha” – the community of monks and nuns – was an essential support on the path of spiritual growth.  As Buddhism has been integrated into Western society, the meaning of sangha has broadened to include all those who embrace a path of awakening – the community of all beings.  As Tara Brach writes in Radical Acceptance, “…taking refuge in the sangha reminds us that we are in good company; we belong with all those who long to awake, with all those who seek the teachings and practices that lead to genuine peace.”

Those of us engaged in the nonprofit sector know what it means to be in good company.  Each day, I’m fortunate to have the opportunity to work with people who are committed to the value of creating healthy and vital communities. Whether it’s providing after-school programs for youth in at-risk situations, advocating for the civil rights of our most vulnerable populations, or protecting and restoring our natural environment, each nonprofit client with which I work serves a critical role in creating real and meaningful transformation in our society.

But too often, nonprofits get caught up in our own busyness.  We cease to listen, both to the inner workings of our own organizations as well as to what’s going on outside of us.  To truly be the best at what we do, it is sometimes necessary to pause, to look within and around, and to reconnect.  By doing so,  we recognize the shared purpose of our work.  We deepen our connections with our constituents.  And we begin to cultivate our presence, empathy, and compassion for those we serve, making our days more significant and our communities more powerful.

Sangha Solutions is a professional consulting firm that enhances the fundraising and leadership potential of nonprofit organizations.  Through fund development assessments, Board and volunteer training workshops, business planning, and individual giving counsel, we help organizations achieve their goals while relating more profoundly to their work.  If your nonprofit is seeking to raise more money, strengthen its leadership capacity, or develop more clarity around its mission and goals, please contact Sangha Solutions for a free initial consultation.

In the meantime, welcome to our community!

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