We're Not Here to Raise Money: Lessons for Fundraisers from This Stressful Season
Here's where I shake you a bit, to wake you up
Dear Ones,
Whew, these last few weeks (months? years?) in the U.S. have been a LOT…yes? We’re talking more about that today.
And relatedly, I have a newsy announcement for y’all: based on my conversations with y’all so far, I realized I was really pushing it, to be announcing something like the Wisdom Circle for Philanthropy in the second half of September… and expecting to get a whole circle pulled together in less than a month, to start meeting 10/10!
As I’ve written, I’m still unlearning my impulse for over-achievement. ☺️
The short timeframe I initially planned for was unrealistic. But amidst this stressful election season… AND the annual truth that this time leading up to, and through, the stressful year-end fundraising sprint is just… A LOT? Yeah.
I knew better. I felt ambitious, at the time. And I knew better.
So.
The new plan is that we will be launching the Wisdom Circle in the new year.
Our first Circle Gathering is scheduled for Thursday, January 23rd from 2:30-4PM Central. This timing feels SO much better to me. So I hope it feels better to you, too.
A new year will be a great time to gather together… and to start to work and live better together. The new-chapter energy, the spaciousness after the year-end sprint is finished… and all the gift acknowledgement and accounting follow-up is complete, a chance to take our first long and grounding breaths together… while we all plan for a new cycle ‘round the sun?
Yes, please.
SO!
I hope the new plan sounds good to you… and I hope you consider applying before the end of this year… and joining us in January!
With Love,
Cecelia 💗
PS:
A couple related requests: know anyone in your life who you think would benefit from subscribing to For the Love of Humanity… and/or joining the Wisdom Circle? Please share these opportunities with them! A great way to do that is as simple as forwarding this email to them with a personal note. Thank you for doing this! 🙏🏻
NOTE: Remember that the Wisdom Circle is intentionally virtual, too… so that folks can participate no matter where they are.
Anxiety.
SO much anxiety.
Stress.
Tension.
A-feeling-of-being-on-edge-constantly.
Holding our breath.
Waiting.
Waiting some more.
Consumed.
Overwhelmed.
I’ve noticed how y’all seem to be doing. I’m hearing the unyielding buzz of anxiety in the air. I’m seeing it on your faces. I’m hearing it in your voices.
Friends, the collective anxiety right now is reaching a fever pitch. In the United States, yes... but I just talked to my coach based in Portugal this week... and according to her, folks there and all across Europe are stressed, too...
... about this upcoming U.S. election, of course.
Because here's the thing.
This one decision — the one that millions of us Americans are making now, to elect a new president of our own country — will actually affect everyone else in this world too. Not just us here.
We Americans love our mythologies of "pulling yourself up by your bootstraps," and "rugged individualism," and "self-made" entrepreneurs or whatever else... so much that I guess many of us forget that they're actually myths?
We are all — all of us humans on this Earth — connected.
Irrevocably.
And thus we are all — all — affected by each other.
So thus we are all — all — dependent on one another.
We can’t bury our heads in the sand. We can’t accept the myopic view that we need to just focus on our own lives… and/or our work, no matter what’s happening. Because thinking we can do that is believing a lie.
No matter what happens with the election happening next week, we (and I mean everyone again, here, not just folks in philanthropy/nonprofits, or in America) are going to be dealing with significant change over the coming months and years.
The pace of life and work will continue to pick up.
Developments with artificial intelligence (AI) will continue.
The yawning canyon between the haves and the have-nots will continue to widen.
Relatedly, the number of donors will continue falling… while the fewer donors we count on will continue to have even more power, in their scarcity, and in the sheer amount of the dollars they’re giving.
Overall dollars raised may start falling more, too.
ALL of this will continue on the trajectory we’re currently on, IF…
… we don’t start changing HOW we’re doing what we’re doing.
Friends, we’re not here to raise money.
Not really.
The money is a sideshow.
The money is just the means by which we ensure the things we value happen. The money is also a vehicle through which we care for each other.
But the money is not the point.
The caring is the point, here.
Being in community is the point, here.
Our shared humanity is the point, here.
I announced the creation and availability of the Wisdom Circle for Philanthropy over the second half of September. To much excitement!
SO many of you have told me that this is SO needed. That you love the idea. That you’re so glad I’m providing this opportunity.
At the same time, so many of you have expressed doubts about your ability to participate — either because you’re making that decision yourself and struggling with it… and/or because you’re being told that by a supervisor.
Here’s the thing.
I’m shaking my head a bit, as I have these conversations with y’all… because they are proving the need for the Wisdom Circle… and showing why your decision should absolutely be to join us!
Road-blocks people tell me they’re encountering:
I just don’t have time for this! I’m so overwhelmed at work. I’ve got so much going on. I’m in a new management role, and/or I’m learning a new skill-set, and/or I’ve got a team depending on me now, and/or I’m really struggling to integrate my work and the rest of my life, and/or… I’m sure you can fill in the rest.
—> I know we all know what this feeling is like — and sharing in the camaraderie of being in that rock-and-a-hard-place situation… and helping each other transform it into something much more healthy, something that supports our holistic wellness, is one of the key purposes of the Wisdom Circle!
My supervisor said no. Managing relationships at work, most especially those between workers and their supervisors, can so often be fraught. In my own experience, and in the experience of SO many of my colleagues, we so often are driven from jobs, propelled to greener pastures, by our relationships at work. They are far-too-often toxic and stressful, to some degree. Beyond that? They are rarely supportive, in the ways we need.
—> This is exactly why one of the major goals of the Wisdom Circle is to provide the support, guidance, and community care that all of us need to navigate our relationships at work, knowing how much they affect our actual work!
Things are super-tense and stressful right now. Yes! Things ARE super-tense and stressful right now! Also: I have yet to encounter a time in my career when they are not. For some reason or other. You too?
—> This abiding truth is why the Wisdom Circle is designed to provide a warm, safe, supportive, caring, healing container for you to re-fill your cup — and to learn new skills with which to approach your day-to-day work… that will actually help mitigate the stress you are experiencing!
I don’t have enough money for professional development. This is another enduring truth that has irked me throughout my career. Nonprofits never provide enough professional development for their staffs. And allocating money in the budget for professional development seems to always be an after-thought. Cuts need to be made? Professional development is usually one of the first victims. This seems like cutting off your nose to spite your face, if you ask me! A staff is literally how almost every nonprofit’s mission gets accomplished. No staff, no mission. Under-resourced, under-trained staff? Compromised mission. WHY isn’t professional development thus prioritized? I strongly believe it should be.
—> Given what I said above, of course I genuinely hope that your employer would happily fund your professional development via a Wisdom Circle membership. At the same time, I know how dicey the chances for that can be… AND I do not want anyone losing out on this kind of professional development, guidance, skill-building, mentoring, and support. SO! That is why I offer scholarships. I will be happy to offer you one, if you need it. Just ask! We’ll talk.
Can I even call this professional development? I’m not sure! I’m not even sure how to budget for this… or whether I can justify it as professional development. Is it? Is this the same as a conference… or a webinar… or a training?
—> YES! This is professional development! Highly effective professional development, at that! You know what? I designed the Wisdom Circle to be the highly effective, applicable-to-my-actual-work professional development I have always craved. This will be different than most professional development you’ve experienced. You will learn so much from hearing what your peers are experiencing, and from witnessing how they are being guided through their own issues. You can bring any problem you’re facing — whether a tricky grant proposal or a fundraising letter you’re working on writing, a challenging issue with a teammate, or an ego-driven donor you’re struggling to build rapport with — and work through it in the Circle. The Circle will be part fundraising course, part problem-solving resource, part networking and community-building, part support group, part on-the-job training… and more…
Friends, look at that list above again.
THESE ARE THE ISSUES we’re all facing, daily, weekly — the most stubborn, gnarly, toxic, seemingly unfixable problems we keep struggling with, the ones seemingly just woven into the fabric of our work.
And here’s the thing.
We can’t solve any of these problems with an academic exercise, with our minds or via some brilliant analysis. We can’t just listen to a lecture, podcast, webinar, or training… or think or write about it. Or even just talk about it.
We need to EXPERIENCE the antidotes, even and especially WHILE we’re in the midst of the toxins, so that the antidotes can do their work.
On a regular basis.
Daily.
Weekly.
Monthly.
And before we know it, we’ll have been living our way into a whole new world of experiences, a whole new way to live and work.
The irony here is that, while considering whether or not we can sign on to healing ourselves and our work in this way, we’re doing a thing that is one of the ongoing systemic problems we need to heal: we are spinning our wheels.
Why would we refuse the antidote to a toxin we’re ingesting… because we’re so busy ingesting the toxin? For real?
The stress of this moment is not going to go away. Not really.
Yes, the election will pass.
The results will be revealed.
And you know what? We’ll keep living our lives, doing our best to get by. No matter what the results are.
And I will say this:
No matter what the results of the election are, we are still going to be facing the same kinds of problems, struggling in the same kinds of ways in our daily lives, and we’ll likely be faced with ever-bigger challenges, as the trajectories that we and our fellow humans are on continue to unfold.
Inflation will likely stubbornly persist. Nobody knows what will happen with the U.S. stock market, but it will likely continue to confound our work. When people tighten their belts, our jobs will become harder and stress us out. The civil unrest and tension and discord will likely continue to animate far too many of us. Power will continue to favor the few. Those in power will continue to cling to it. True change — systemic and otherwise — will continue to seem out of reach.
And in the midst of all of that, the Wisdom Circle for Philanthropy will be quietly gathering — and incubating and growing a whole new world into being.