Your Nonprofit Path Won’t Be Typical (And That’s the BEST Part.)
Second guessing. Playing the comparison game. They’re human nature, and none of us are immune.
When you start a nonprofit, the actual launch is the culmination of many weeks or even years of thought, conversations, information-gathering, and generally trying to “get up the nerve” to take the plunge. During this phase, you share your vision and heart with anyone who will listen, hoping some will take an interest.
It’s very normal during this time to “size up” individuals, businesses, foundations, and other organizations you connect with to try to “guess” what their involvement might be with you in the future… For example, you might think:
“Because our nonprofit is providing services to the autism community, and that potential donor has autism in their family, they’ll for sure support us financially.”
“Since we’ve been members of this church for 17 years, no doubt the missions and outreach committee will allow us to use the church facility for our upcoming volunteer training.”
“He just retired early, and is looking for things to do – I’ll bet he’ll volunteer 20 hours a week!”
Worse yet, we will use ridiculous generalizations based on a few external cues to “ballpark” a person’s giving capacity.
A nice car, big title, or nice house = high capacity
Drives a beater, blue collar job, and living in a sketchy part of town = probably not going to support you
Take it from a person who has thought all those things and worse… nothing could be further from the truth. The first time I raised money for my own nonprofit work (mind you I had already been raising millions for other people, so I should’ve known better) I had the privilege of access to many people with tremendous capacity, and yet in the end… almost none of that panned out, and the individual that gave the most to the work was a college student (true story – and very humbling moment)
Line up 10 nonprofit leaders all with 20 years or more under their belt, and all of them will tell you the path to sustainability and success was anything but typical or predictable – and hear this now… your path won’t be typical either. The people and organizations you think are a “slam dunk” to catch your vision and mission and run with you? Many won’t. The people you believe to be disinterested, or cash-strapped, or too busy… they may be your biggest encouragers, supporters, and cheerleaders.
Knowing this, approach each day of your nonprofit journey this way: show up, keep an open mind, and don’t discount anyone or anything. The impact you’ve always is envisioned is just ahead, and chances are, the people who are “going there” with you are NOT who you are imagining today… and that is one of the greatest joys of the work you’ve chosen.