TIGblogs - Jennifer Corriero

I just spent the past week with over 100 young people from various non-profit organizations in a training session on how to raise money! I was completely amazed by the depth of the discussions, the materials we were given, and the people who attended! Below is a summary of the notes taken from Lynn Twist when she spoke:

Fundraising from the Heart

Most people don’t make a living. They make a dying and they make a killing. For many, work has no meaning. People produce something that they don’t care about, only to get a paycheck. They exploit, destroy and get caught up in cycles of greed. For those who work in the social profit sector, your work is about making a difference – so you are truly making a living. Your work uplifts and reignites. You get to merge your passion, love and care with earning a living. You get to work with volunteers who CHOOSE to join in the mission that you are committed to and the money that you are working with comes from someone’s heart.’

The ‘money culture’ has suppressed millions. Many have come from oppression and poverty. People have been crushed by it, feel resentful towards it and are angry and upset because of it. What you need to do, is free yourself from this resentment.

Money is just an invention. It only has the power that we give it. The value of it changes every day. Sometimes, we give money more power than human life itself. We must learn to retract that power. In the past, when money didn’t exist, it was a ‘gift economy’ based on exchanges between people. Money does not need to dominate our consciousness. We need to re-source, re-design and re-look at our relationship with money.

Look into the fabric of your own lives.
Find something personal and specific that you can let go of.
• Think of when you have been wounded around money.
• Think of when you saw someone hurt by money.
• Think of when you have hurt someone else (related to money).

In order to be great leaders, you need to lead from compassion rather than anger and despair. Work with a partner to share something that you are ready to let go of. This gives some freedom and may help you release some of your baggage.

Many people live in the mindset of scarcity. This is a condition where people believe that more is better. The idea that we do not have enough is something that is reinforced day-in and day-out through mass media culture. We are bombarded with messages that give unfulfilled promises. Our more-is-better culture begins when we wake up in the morning and think to ourselves ‘I didn’t get enough sleep’. Then comes ‘I don’t ever have enough time, I don’t have enough energy, I don’t have enough materials etc. etc. Eventually, we start believing that we are not enough. This attitude of more-is-better that is perpetuated by consumer culture is a lie. This condition weakens us. It takes a lot of energy and is just a downward spiral. The condition of scarcity lets people complain. Conversations that don’t matter are ones that focus on the reasons why we don’t have things.

The lens that I recommend is ‘The Context of Sufficiency’. Once you see that you have enough, you are not desperate and scrambling. Put your energy into making things happen. Look at what you have and think about how you can make it stronger. This mindset is a way of relating to the world out of which abundance flows.

The Principle of Sufficiency. If you let go of trying to get more of what you don’t really need – it frees up. Unlock your energy to make a difference with what you have – that is when it expands. When you make a difference with what you have, it expands and grows. Just like when you stop trying to make yourself a different person – that is when you expand.

What you appreciate – appreciates. You grow and expand when you are appreciated. So does everything you appreciate. For me, to really create a garden, I want to appreciate your struggle. Let go of trying to get what you don’t really need. When you make a difference with what you have, it expands. Of course, your vision is always bigger than what you have – but you need to be the one to create the gap.

You are starting with enough.
Make every resource effective enough so that you can become powerful instead of disabled.

Invite people to move the money that flows through their lives, to flow towards their highest commitments. You will not get your maximum leverage if they are giving the money to you. Their money is going towards the vision and mission. Your effort and organizing skill is directed towards the vision and mission. It is about people living in resource poor conditions who have the guts to create change, and people with money to become co-equal partners joining together to make a vision real. Wed them to your mission and not to yourself. Everyone has something to contribute. People with excess money really want to have something to do with it.

Your job is to expand the pie of resources – not compete for a piece of the pie. That pie belongs to everybody. Everybody has the opportunity to expand it! We need to keep money flowing and moving like water. The Tyranny of Wealth – it cleanses, purifies and makes things grow. When you hold it and try to contain it, it stops. It can clot and kill. Money needs to be seen as a carrier for our intention, love and integrity. Make sure that fundraising is consistent with your vision and mission, not the problem you are trying to resolve.

Money is like water. It is a carrier and can have tremendous blessing with it. Dwell in the house of sufficiency and let abundance flow.

Focus on your personal assets
‘[Your situation] is an asset if you say so. It is a liability if you say so – I invite you to choose what it is for you.’ Enable your partner to be responsible for their greatest strengths. Let them become aware of the tools and assets that they have to help them in their work. You have tremendous assets – build from there!

What are the sources of oppression and inequality?

The background of relatedness
Fundraising is like a garden that keeps expanding and growing if you keep attending to it.
Put your attention on the being with people, on the nurturing, on the space that helps create results. Work with what you already have, rather than try to reach for something that’s not there. Work with the donors you already have – they will bring you new people.

There are 3 rules to fundraising:

1. Ask for the money.

2. Ask people who are committed, who want to build a better world, and who want their money to make a difference

3. Ask everyone. Get people in touch with their longing for life. Some of the most important things that have happened to you, happened because someone asked you to take a risk. Any time someone has given you the opportunity to step forward, for something that you believe in, they have given you a gift.

I don’t make a request from people until I know who they are. I invite them to enter a larger world with me. I listen and try to understand who they are. I build a larger possible world with them. I create interactions with them, until the time is right where it’s inevitable. If you don’t inevitably ask them for money, you are actually being stingy with people. If your interactions are profound enough, and meaningful enough, then it will work.

“You have to approach your donors in a position of power. They have the privilege of making a contribution towards something that they believe in.”

“Giving money is one of the highest forms of participation in terms of changing the world.”

“You can’t fail. Lots of people are going to say no thank-you – but people are also people who are going to say yes.”

“People are longing to make a difference with their life. We are working with institutions that have the ability to connect with people’s passions and that can enable them to make a difference.”

“Authenticity is power.”

“Your fundraising strategy should both fulfill and fund your mission.”

“We have so much support here – we just need to open our eyes to it.”

Principles of Fundraising

• Effective fundraising is a stand so potent for the mission and vision that it draws the resources it needs to fulfill itself.
• Fundraising consistent with, and born of the mission, will both fulfill the mission and ensure that the work is always viable
• When you bring joy, privilege and honor to fundraising, it will always be productive and fulfilling
• The integrity of the donor’s (investor’s) relationship to his/her contribution is what gives the contribution power. Money given to make a difference does. It is blessed money.
• The moment you ask for money, you raise the quality of the dialogue. You elevate both your relationship with the donor/investor and the work you are doing and you will be taken seriously.
• The act of investing calls up accountability and ownership. The true value of the interaction is well beyond the money, it is in having called forth a command partner
• When you ask people to invest, to be vested in a new future, you honor them by asking them to risk, to take a stand, to cause something unpredictable to happen. This calls for them to be great with their money.
• Powerful contributions / investments are made when:
o People are in touch with themselves
o People see that the work you are doing makes a difference
o People see that their money will make a difference and when
o Someone asks for the money, and gives them an opportunity to invest
• Inspiration and being moved transcend position, opinion and points of view. When people are moved to give their money and moved to have their financial resources allocated consistent with their deepest commitments, it gives them an experience of their wholeness.
• A fundraiser has the rare opportunity to empower people to be prime movers – to generate, catalyze, found, invent; to make possible a beginning of something.
• A request born of respect for the commitment of the potential investor/donor and an affirmation of who they are will always serve them – even if their answer is no.

When we ask something great of people – we affirm that they have something great to give

~ Tad, Youth For Environmental Sanity