Back in 2012, when Creating the Future had just wrapped up its 3rd successful scholarship campaign at StartSomeGood.com, we posted a “lessons learned” post, to share what was standing out for us from that campaign. 

Fast forward to today, we are now in the early planning stages for our 4th crowdfunding effort in early 2016. It feels only right to begin that journey by reviewing the basics we’ve learned so far. And so, below is a reprint of that original 2012 post.

As always, we hope you will take a moment to share in the comments: What have you learned from your own crowdfunding efforts?

Lesson #1: It’s Not Really CrowdFunding; It’s PEERfunding
There is a misconception in the world of fundraising that “crowdfunding” is a way to get masses of people to invest in your work. And as the folks at StartSomeGood point out, that is just not so.

“This is often referred to as “crowdfunding” but we resist this definition as we think it gives an erroneous impression that there is a crowd out there just waiting to shower your idea with money.

In fact, what’s happening is groups leveraging and growing their existing communities — their peers — by inviting them to become partners in igniting change.

Therefore, StartSomeGood is a peerfunding site – a platform for gathering a community and raising the funds needed to create change.”

Lesson #2: The Message to Peers vs the Message to Crowds
While we have intellectually understood this subtle difference between “peerfunding” and “crowdfunding,” we experienced this difference firsthand during this campaign.

First, we noticed the difference when we asked people we respect for their thoughts about the video we prepared for our campaign.

Here is a comment from someone who has been deeply engaged with two of Creating the Future’s programs for over a year – the NPCons twitter chat and the Facebook group for consultants.

“I liked the video very much. I found one story especially compelling – the story about changing the question from “addressing the problem” to asking what is possible. For me that story is an easy way for someone who may not totally understand what Creating the Future is about to “get it”. It’s also a concrete example of one of your tools, something that made me sit up and say ‘Hey! There’s something to this Creating the Future thing!’.”

On the flip side, here is a comment from someone who is familiar with our work, but who isn’t as deeply engaged and excited by the vision of what we’re working to accomplish.

“I wasn’t compelled to give nor did I know what my gift would actually be doing to change the world.”

Two completely opposite reactions, based entirely on the degree to which someone already gets what we’re about at the core – the degree to which someone is already an active participant in our programs and philosophies… a peer.

We got another dose of this lesson as we tested responses to messaging – an easy thing to do when you are messaging all day every day on social media for a full week.

When our message was for general consumption (e.g. “Help changemakers learn how to change the world” or similar messages), we received barely a handful of notes from people asking how exactly we are doing what we do. Importantly, a) those people did not donate, and b) there are more effective ways of engaging that conversation, if that was the goal.

However the message that resonated the most deeply was a message that only those in our existing circles would appreciate: “If you have benefitted from any of Creating the Future’s programs, please pay that forward, to help someone else benefit as you have.”

While the “pay it forward” message understandably had zero effect on people outside our existing circle, the interesting thing to us was that the opposite was also true – the broader externally-focused message had virtually no impact on our existing circle.

The effective campaign was therefore not about changing the world, but about our existing community wanting to share what was already powerful for them – their desire to broaden the circle. The words of the StartSomeGood team rang true: “What’s happening is groups leveraging and growing their existing communities — their peers — by inviting them to become partners in igniting change.”

And clearly, how that focus on “peers vs. crowds” translates into messaging will make a big difference in a campaign’s success.

Lesson #3: Where to Find Peers
Creating the Future’s education programs are all rooted in practical experience. Our M.O. has always been to experiment, see what works, then teach that. There is nothing any of us teach or write about that we haven’t used successfully ourselves. 

It is therefore always fun for us to come back to those approaches we now teach, and put them to use once again for our own efforts!

The tool we used the most was the Life List Generator from my book on FriendRaising – questions that prompt us to remember the long list of people who are already connected to our work. We also used a ripples-in-the-pond exercise that we teach in our workshops and workbooks, asking whose lives are touched by our existing programs, and then seeing whose lives are touched by those people, and etc.

As they always do, those tools proved to be both effective and empowering. And as teachers, that is not only reassuring, but downright fun!

Lesson #4: Go Fast, Go Strong and Go Home
When we’ve done campaigns in the past, we’ve allowed ourselves the maximum time – 90 days – thinking that would give us as much time as possible to build support. Every time, however, the heavy lifting happened in the first week and the last week.

So this time, we eliminated the dead time in the middle, and just pushed hard for about 10 days – constantly adjusting our messaging, testing results, and then pushing hard again.

The work was the same. The results were the same. And we didn’t suffer from people getting tired of hearing about it (or from us getting tired of talking about it!).

Which leads to…

Lesson #5: Race for the Finish: Making it Happen
Message is important. Peers are important.

And then there is this thing inside us humans that has 100% to do with “making it happen.”

The most powerful message for getting people to pitch in – far beyond any mission-based message – was “We are only $X away from $2,000.”

This has been an important lesson beyond fundraising for us, as Creating the Future’s R&D work in the area of Philanthropy focuses on the sustainability of not just organizations, but whole communities. Clearly, beyond the dollars and the issues and the mission, we humans have this need to “make it happen.”

Which raised the mission-focused question, “What does this realization about human psychology make possible for how the quality of life in communities can be sustained?”

It is indeed far easier to ride a horse the way it’s going. If we can acknowledge and work with this particular insight into the human psyche, perhaps we can begin leveraging that deep desire to make it happen, to bring people together in a spirit of abundance. Because there is so much we can accomplish together that no one person or group can accomplish on their own.

Bonus Lessons
Two more lessons. The first isn’t as much a lesson as a whole mini-class – a practical step-by-step workshop presented by Tom Dawkins, co-founder of StartSomeGood.com. Bookmark this, and watch it when you can take notes and absorb. We haven’t found a better Crowdfunding 101 workshop anywhere.  

And the second is an invitation for YOU to share what YOU have learned in your own crowdfunding peerfunding efforts. What has worked for you? And what have you learned from what has NOT worked for you? We will share all your comments with the folks from StartSomeGood, so it can help all the efforts that use their platform to – well – start some good!

Special note: We extend a very warm thank you to Tom Dawkins of StartSomeGood.com, for the ongoing support you have showed for Creating the Future’s work. It’s an honor to be on this journey with the StartSomeGood team by our side.

Photo Credits: Wikimedia commons

Creating the Future is at the beginning of a journey – not just to reinvent philanthropy, but to reframe how each of us aligns our means with our ends, being the future we want to see right here now. 

Our goal is simple – change the questions embedded in the day-to-day work of individuals and organizations, so everyone naturally brings out the best in each other and in our world. And we know that is possible, simply because it is not impossible. 

As part of this journey, we will be spending this year seeking partners who want to explore alongside us. We know there are many groups already exploring this issue. We also know there are groups who would love to do so, but haven’t yet found the on-ramp.

This quick video is a first stab at describing this project. If this is intriguing to you, we would love to begin a conversation about what this might look like for all of us!  (For the slideshare to this video, click here.)

   

What is the most meaningful and memorable “thank you” you’ve ever received?

We posed this question to a group of experts who work with all types of community organizations, and we received some very inspiring responses!

As we read those stories, a clear pattern emerged: Whether the thank you was in response to a cash donation or the gift of expertise, time, wisdom (or all those things combined!), the most deeply appreciated thank you’s were those that accomplish one or both of the following:

• The Thank You shows the connection between the initial gift and its direct impact.

• The Thank You evokes pleasant memories – and a big ol’ smile – every time the recipient of that thank you re-visits that token of appreciation.

If you are looking for new ways to show your appreciation to colleagues, board members, business associates, or volunteers, you may find inspiration in some of these examples that were shared by the experts.

Give an item unique to your organization or an individual in the organization

• After completing a project with a family center that operates a social enterprise making beautiful moccasins, Rhonda Lorch received a beautiful dove grey pair with white fur and beaded toes. She noted, “every time I slip into them, my heart is filled with gratitude and thanks for such a wonderful gift.

• Hildy Gottlieb spoke of receiving an ebony arrowhead on a strand of deerskin. That gift was personally handcrafted by the enterprise manager she had been assisting in a Native American community. She still wells up just thinking about it 20 years later.

• Joyce Lee-Ibarra treasures a spiral-bound book full of notes from former colleagues and a handcrafted piece of jewelry with personally selected stones that was made by one of her managers, noting that the time and care to think about the recipient and what makes that person unique are what makes these items so special.

• Other unique items include sterling and moonstone earrings made by a ballerina in a ballet company for which Pauline Hechler had built their development program, Mary Cahalane received from the board opening night tickets for life when she left her job at a theater company, and Jane Garthson still uses the African fabric bag she received after her service to an ecological farming organization.

Select a gift customized to the recipient’s passions

• Kivi Leroux Miller shared that the most treasured appreciation items she has received are those such as unique pottery, wooden bowls, blank books, and earrings that were so “her” she could have purchased them on her own.

• Beth Kanter expressed how much she has been touched when someone makes a donation in her name to a charity she has talked about. Beth also loves it when she receives a hat unique to the location to add to her collection, and Marc Pitman feels the same when he receives a new bow tie – his trademark look!

• When she was leaving a job in a grassroots nonprofit to move to a new position in the national organization, the local board gave Marlene Oliveira a beautiful pen, which she has used every day in the thirteen years since she received it and it is a visible symbol of her commitment to creativity and writing.

Renew the relationship

• Richelle Morgan and Gayle Valeriote both shared how much they feel appreciated when they are invited to continue a relationship with a group or are asked to come back for additional work with them. Being welcomed into a lasting relationship is a tangible expression that their work truly made a difference!

Pick up the phone

• Debra Askanase received personal phone calls to thank her for a small donation and another for her volunteer involvement, both of which left her “gobsmacked!”

Many of our experts, including Margie McCurry, Susan Detwiler, and Stacy Ashton, spoke of receiving “thank you” letters and testimonials that were so personal, touching and even humbling, that they have not only kept those letters but often pull them out to re-read. These letters get to the heart of the profound connection that has been made between individuals and what that connection means to each of them.

As we enter the season where donations of all sorts pour into organizations, saying Thank You may seem like just one more chore. But if the impact these expressions of gratitude have had on their recipients is any indication, it is clear that saying Thank You is an important part of building long-term friendships with the people who care about your cause. So much more than an obligation, showing gratitude can be a personal, joyful and sincere act that makes everyone feel good.

As Hildy Gottlieb noted in her blog, “The Sound a Thank You Makes,” a sincere and specific show of appreciation makes a joyful sound when it lands on the recipient’s heart.

Which leads us to ask…
What is the most meaningful and memorable “thank you” you’ve ever received?

And what if that potential is far more than just money?

That is a question that Debra Askanase asked a year ago, as she pondered, “Where is the community in GivingTuesday?” This is not surprising if you know Debra, as her website is called Community 2.0, and all her work centers around community engagement.

It is now a year later.  As Debra notes in her post this year, “This year, #GivingTuesday is starting to become a communal experience, not just in the giving… or almost requisite ask for donations… but in the desire to come together to discuss generosity and giving as a community.”

As you consider the power of #GivingTuesday, we hope the following get your juices flowing about the potential of this day.

Debra Askanase will be participating with several other gurus in the community benefit world, in a conversation about GivingTuesday. The conversation is being hosted by NTEN – the Nonprofit Tech Network. The event will happen on GivingTuesday itself – December 2 – at 11am US Pacific time.  You can register for free at this link. 

Imagine if that spirit of conversation were the real meaning of GivingTuesday – a day to invite people who care about the same thing you care about, to join in a public conversation about that topic, without wanting any money from them at all!

In her blog post today, Beth Kanter gives a great example of extending the spirit of GivingTuesday into everyday life. She shares that this year during GivingTuesday, she is in Brazil, speaking at a completely unrelated conference. Because of the timing, though, she asked the folks at GivingTuesday.org for a contact person in Brazil. That led not only to a great connection, but to inviting that connection to join her as part of the NTEN conversation linked a few paragraphs above this one!

Imagine if that spirit of connection were the real meaning of GivingTuesday – a day to reach out and meet people of similar interests, and to invite them to be an integral part of the work you’re doing, without wanting money from them at all!

Lastly, in my most recent blog post at Huffington Post, I asked what it would make possible if GivingTuesday were a day for people in communities everywhere to share what they have with each other, including organizations sharing with other organizations.  

Imagine if that spirit of Collective Enoughness were the real meaning of GivingTuesday – a day to celebrate the power that already exists within all community benefit orgs, where everyone in a community gave to each other, without wanting money from them at all!

It seems like the real potential of GivingTuesday harkens back to the original Greek meaning of Philanthropy, “Love of Humanity.” What if GivingTuesday were a day to be in community with each other, from a place of deep caring – not just caring about the specific target audience you are hoping to help, but caring about everyone, simply because we are all human?

That would not only be a wonderful day to celebrate; it would be a wonderful inspiration to live up to for the other 364 days in the year.

“Are you guys crazy?”

That’s the question most people dance their way around when we answer the question, “How is Creating the Future funded?”

More typically, the question sounds like this: “You guys are SO fundable! Why aren’t you getting grants or venture funding?”

And here’s what they’re really wondering:

Why would a new organization with an innovative approach to creating massive social change – an organization that could easily be funded by traditional means – opt NOT to seek that traditional funding?

Why would an organization choose to forego paying its full-time working founders – choose even temporarily to scrape by on a mix of small donations and earned income – as it puts the pieces in place for an experiment in reinventing social change funding?

Why would an organization bet its financial future on an experiment with no guarantees of success?

In this post, I will answer those questions. And as with everything when it comes to systems change, the answer is a layered one.

Answer #1: Someone Has to Be Willing to Try

When it comes to current funding systems, everyone is frustrated. People at all ends of the traditional philanthropic world and people in the new world of social enterprise and social capital and social business – everyone meets at the intersection of “That’s all well and good, but where will the money come from?” and “There’s only so much to go around.”

There are individual funders who have, over the years, bucked the traditional systems and proven that different approaches to funding can be highly successful. The problem is we don’t learn from those efforts, because most of us don’t even know about them.

Did you know that the Community Health Endowment in Lincoln, Nebraska completely solved the problem of hospital emergency rooms being used as primary care by low income people?

Did you know that St. Luke’s Health Initiatives has a model for funding absolutely every single group that wants to get capacity building assistance?

Coming from the fund-recipient side of the equation, many organizations talk about what it would take for funding to be more aligned with the ends we want to see in our communities. But pursuing those approaches with prospective funders takes time, and it doesn’t serve the mission of a Food Bank or an Arts organization to take that time, or to take on the very real risk that their experiment might fail.

So Answer #1 is that if we want to see changes in the fundamental systems that support social change, someone has to be willing to be the guinea pig.

Answer #2: That is our job.

It is not the job of a Food Bank to demonstrate more values-aligned systems for resourcing their work. For them, funding systems are a means to the end of supporting their mission. For Creating the Future, though, changing those systems IS our mission. Our job is to experiment and demonstrate what is possible.

Creating the Future is a living laboratory with a 10 year mission – to change the questions embedded in the day-to-day work of individuals and organizations, to create a world filled with communities where everyone naturally brings out the best in each other and in our world.

We know such a future is possible, simply because it is not impossible. But we also know this:

Creating the world we want is not a matter of finding the next innovative action; it is a matter of rethinking the assumptions that go into those actions.

Assumptions are the questions we are answering that we don’t even know we’re asking. Therefore, the most direct line to changing our assumptions is to change the questions that guide our work and our lives.

Rooted in research in the fields of neuroscience and behavioral psychology (individual behavior) and history and sociology (group behavior), along with 15 years of our own experimentation, Creating the Future’s 10 year mission is to see a tipping point in the questions that guide day-to-day living and work around the world.

That mission is being addressed through four interrelated efforts:
• Research and Development and Experimentation
• Demonstration (learning together and sharing what we learn)
• Education (sharing what we learn)
• Convening and engaging new conversations.

(For a more comprehensive description of our theory of change and our approach to Changing the Questions that will Change the World, head here.) 

And so, Answer #2 to is that designing new systems for funding is a big part of our job.

Answer #3: What is the best possible outcome?

When we consider the highest potential outcome for this effort, it almost makes us giddy. What could a demonstration project to rethink how social change is resourced make possible?

Here are just some of the items on a very long list of what this project could make possible:

• Demonstrate relationships of equal partnership vs. relationships rooted in the assumption that money = power.
• Demonstrate frameworks that shift from assumptions of scarcity to assumptions of collective enoughness – that together we have everything we need, and that it is only alone that we face scarcity.
• Demonstrate frameworks that bring out the best in each other as individuals, in situations, in organizations and in communities.
• Demonstrate what work looks like when it is rooted in relationship, potential, and enoughness.

And what would all that make possible?

• Others would have something to point to, as they try to apply what we all co-learn to their own settings.
• They would feel comfortable that they don’t have to invent it; that we will have done that for them and showed what works.

And what would THAT make possible?

By forming new habits, we would be creating new culture. Approaches that bring out the best in each of us and our communities would become the norm of how we all be with each other.

Cultural change happens all the time, often faster than one could imagine. In 50 years, we went from the struggles of the Civil Rights movement to the election (twice) of an African American president. In ten years we went from the titillating shock of “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” to the growing acceptance and celebration of gay marriage.

Imagine then the power of what this project could make possible if it were built with the clear intent to change our assumptions about each other and about what is possible, specifically as it relates to money and power and social change?

Answer #4: What’s the Worst that Could Happen?

When fear is making the decisions, all the “best case” scenarios will end up in the compost heap, disregarded in favor of the one fear-based reason on the “con” side of the ledger. Because fear is at the heart of the “Are you guys crazy?” question, let’s consider the worst case scenarios, and meet those fears head-on.

What’s the worst that could happen if we just fund Creating the Future the old fashioned way – by entering into the traditional funding market?

Some of the nightmares on that list include:

1) If no one is willing to be the test case, how will we ever know what’s possible? The systems will never change if no one is willing to put their butt on the line.

2) If we went into the traditional competitive funding arena, “making the case” for our cause (talk about words that are laden with power dynamics!), we would be intentionally going against our values, our vision for the world we want to create, and our mission of asking more effective questions. In the words of one of our founding board members, Mark Riffey, “If we’re not going to eat our own dog food, why should anyone else? If we are not about upholding our own values, why would any of us be here?”

And what’s the worst that could happen if we forestall funding until we can do it in a way that aligns with our values, our vision, our mission?

Some of the nightmares on that list include:

1) We will be broke for longer than we would be otherwise (see Answer #5).

2) We could fail – we could accomplish none of what is in the visionary outcomes noted in Answer #3 above.

Setting aside the answer about being broke (see Answer #5 below), the Thomas Edison quote comes to mind. “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

Which is to say that when one is learning, there is no failure. Especially given our role as a Learning Lab, the worst failure would be if we fail to seek that learning.

Which leaves only one last answer, the real elephant in the room…

Answer #5: The Only Thing We Have to Fear…

Yes, working with extremely limited capital is no fun. Having started so many social enterprises that we’ve almost lost count, we’ve been in this situation before. And no, it is not a way of life either of us two founders would like to maintain permanently.

But this is not permanent. This past two years have been an investment, laying the foundation so that we would be ready to do precisely what we are doing now.

This effort to fund our work through the very act of rethinking funding overall is rooted in the thought and action frameworks that we teach, and that have successfully created results beyond their wildest dreams for groups and organizations and companies.

“Trust the process; trust the people in the room.”
~ poster on the wall during our immersion courses

The reality is that this feels no riskier than writing a dozen grants, or visiting a dozen venture philanthropists. And that’s because we do trust the process – the thought framework that has repeatedly provided groups with answers to quandaries they had previously thought unsolvable.

And we do trust the people in the room – those foundation leaders and venture philanthropists and social venture capitalists who are eager for a more aligned way to resource the work of making the world a better place.

So, then, why would a new organization with an innovative approach to creating massive social change – an organization that could easily be funded by traditional means – opt NOT to seek that traditional funding?

Because those traditional approaches perpetuate the very systems our mission is aimed at replacing. And because going back to the old ways feels scarier than moving toward what’s possible. And because we are confident we will find partners who feel the same way.

Follow along and learn along with us by subscribing at the button at the top of this page – or if you are reading this via email, at this link. Thanks!

What would social change funding look and feel like if it 100% reflected the world it aimed to create?

That is the question at the heart of several demonstration projects for which Creating the Future is seeking courageous and curious partners.

This post will be the first in a series, describing the projects, the intent, the background thinking, the expectations. It is also where we are officially asking you to join us on this journey of exploration.

As we begin, you may find it helpful to keep this in mind:
Unless something is physically impossible, it is possible.

Now buckle up and hold on tight!

What would social change funding look and feel like if it 100% reflected the world it aimed to create?

To create a more people-centered world, where people are valued more than money, social investment itself would value people more than money.

What would that look like in the day-to-day?
Funding would honor and steward all resources, especially human resources (vs. equating money with power and wisdom and only stewarding the cash).

People-centered philanthropy and social investment would be partnerships of equals, exploring and growing together towards the shared vision of a healthy, vibrant place to live (vs. silent financial partnerships, the current norm in social investing).

Using their ability to convene, social investors would bring together all people who care, across all sectors. People would be invited as people first and last (vs. representing “the business community” for example).

Taking that a step further, social investors would not be the only ones doing the inviting to these sorts of conversations. When others would invite those funders to participate in issues-focused conversations, it would be because they value the knowledge and experience of those individuals who happen to be funders; not because they want those funders “in on the ground floor, so that maybe they will give us money.” Social investors would be valued equally as everyone else in the room, not put on a pedestal or disdained (or both) because they happen to have money.

Social investors would value their own exploration, humbly applying what they learn to their own work, acknowledging that when it comes to creating the world we all want, there are no “experts” – we are all building the path while we walk it.

Because money is always a means and never an end unto itself, financial statements would be one of many pages in a report detailing all the community resources that have been activated and engaged as a result of the investor’s efforts. Balance sheets would balance all assets – including and especially people – with community improvement as the measure of results (vs. money in the bank as the measure of results).

To create a world where there is enough for everyone, social investment itself would reflect the Stone Soup reality of Collective Enoughness, acknowledging that together we have everything we need, and that it is only alone that we experience scarcity.

What would that look like in the day-to-day?
Social investors working to strengthen low income communities would apply that same compassion and sense of justice to the organizations they support.

“Competition for scarce resources” would no longer be the underlying assumption of resource allocation, forcing like-minded groups to battle each other for the means to do good work. It would be the norm, not the curious exception, for investors to find ways to fund everyone.

Emphasis on money would be replaced with emphasis on the things the money buys – talent, wisdom, connection, buildings, equipment, access – encouraging everyone to add what they have to the “Stone Soup.”

When like-minded groups no longer have to fear that sharing ideas will lead to stealing ideas (i.e. losing funding for those ideas), the question guiding all collaborations would be, “What can we accomplish together that none of us could accomplish on our own? And what resources do we have together that, individually, we only have a small portion of?”

Social investors’ go-to reflex would be to collaborate with other social investors, starting with doing their organizational planning together.

Social investors would be seeing their own resources as far more than just their dollars, exploring ways of participating alongside others in their community by sharing all those resources (vs. assuming all they have to share – or the most important thing they have to share – is their dollars).

By creating a community culture that values all resources (people, physical assets – from copy machines to empty buildings to dollars – knowledge, experience), social investors would be invited to participate in early conversations of issues, not for their money, but simply as members of the community with the same types of assets as everyone else – experience, knowledge, community connections.

To create an economically equitable world rooted in democratic ideals of fairness, social investment itself would resemble a town square, not a hallowed hall.

What would that look like in the day-to-day?
Democratic, equitable philanthropy and social investing would walk the talk of the macro economy they want their efforts to create.

Specifically in the world of philanthropy, where the dollars granted have been exempted from the tax base, foundations would assume that the resources they husband and then invest do not belong to them, but to the community. Decisions about allocation and investment of those resources would be made by the people who live in the community.

Foundation boards would be filled with community members who deeply understand the place where they live (and could easily be taught about legal fiduciary duty), replacing boards filled with corporate leaders who deeply understand finance and see fiduciary duty as their primary role.

To create a world where strong communities routinely create resilience by nurturing their collective strengths, social investment itself would be aimed at building that capacity in communities.

What would that look like in the day-to-day?
Social investment would focus on community first, seeing organizations as catalysts for community capacity.

Social investors would be seeking investment models rooted in the power of people to help themselves, without assuming that community change is always best initiated by organizations.

Funding for “capacity building” would aim at building the capacity of communities to organize organically, to effectively address needs and opportunities that arise. The inquiry guiding such efforts would focus on the most effective path to ensure that individuals and groups in their communities have the capacity to work together to create the future they want to see, each participating with who they are and what they have (a spirit of Stone Soup).

When funding is aimed at building organizational capacity, that funding would favor initiatives that explicitly link their organizational capacity building to community capacity building (vs. assuming that building strong orgs will naturally result in stronger communities – an assumption with no basis in fact).

Strength-based social investment would be tethered to the future people want to create in their community vs. reacting to what they do not like about their community (reactive problem-based investment).

What Would it Take for This to Be Reality?
Unless something is physically impossible, it is possible. And nothing in the preceding section is physically impossible. It may feel difficult or unlikely, but it is not impossible.

• Social investors want their work to have significant impact.

• Many people in the field of social change are frustrated that they have not achieved the level of social change they believe is possible, with fads like the “measurement / logic-model movement” and the “run-like-a-business movement” coming and going in reaction to that frustration.

• Social investors have a ton to build upon, to create the communities they want to see. The most meaningful of those assets are not their money, but all the non-money assets described above – intention, passion, knowledge, connections, experience, the desire to learn.

For 15+ years, we have been researching and experimenting to get to the heart of what actually creates the change we all want to create. Our base question has been this:

The US Civil Rights Movement, the Indian Independence Movement, the South African Freedom movement – these movements all evidence that dramatic social change can and does happen.

What is happening when significant, sweeping change happens?

And how can we infuse that formula into all work, done by everyone, everywhere, so that humanity is routinely bringing out the best in each other and our communities?

In all that research and experimentation, our most significant finding – the one that became the heart of our theory of change – was this one:

It is not what change agents DO, but the assumptions behind those efforts, that determine whether or not their work will create meaningful change.

I will go into more detail about the power of assumptions (and the questions that create them) in another post. For now, the most important finding I can share is this:

There is a path to greater impact.

The path requires that foundations and social investors look inside at their own assumptions, and how those assumptions have unintentionally created systems that perpetuate the very conditions they are seeking to change.

If social investors want a world that celebrates the power and collective resource that we, as a planet, all share, a world where we bring out the best in each other and aim for what is possible – those results will only occur when that vision is embedded in the systems that guide all their actions.

What We’re Proposing / Inviting You to Be Part Of
Over the next several posts, I will share our thoughts about an effort for which we are seeking partners to explore alongside us:

Planning together for how a capacity building organization can…

a) define “mission accomplished” in the context of the community change they want to see; measure progress; and accomplish that mission

b) create a sustainable “business model” to ensure that effort has the resources to accomplish the mission (the bane of every capacity building org)

Just as we are asking philanthropists, foundations and social investors to put their very being on the line in this effort, Creating the Future is doing the same. We are resisting the temptation to fund our work in ways that go counter to the world we want to see. Instead, we are seeking partners in the very truest sense of that word:

• Partners who will learn alongside us together.

• Partners who will apply what they learn to their own work (by far the most important piece).

• Partners who will each put into the Stone Soup pot all they have to offer – their wisdom, their resources, their expertise, their connections, etc.

Upcoming Posts
Over the coming weeks, we will be posting the following (and likely other posts, that will be generated by writing these!)

• Details about Creating the Future’s motivations and desired results of these projects (Click through to Post #2 here.)

• Project approach – the frameworks we will use, the pre-project “sleuthing” effort that is kicking off with these very posts

• Project details (as we currently see them, which we know will change via what we learn in our sleuthing)

• Learnings (ongoing) from our first “Foundation Philanthropy Demonstration Project” in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania

• Issues we already know we are likely to encounter, including the ever present issue of “How to bring foundation boards along?”

• Ways to participate in these projects

For now, stay tuned.

And please, our first step will be connecting with people in the funding arena – people who live by their curiosity and desire to learn and explore. We are in information gathering mode (more on that in another post). So please let us know if this sounds even remotely intriguing to you. We’d love to chat and begin the process of learning from each other!

We have a ton to learn, and we can’t wait to meet all the co-learners and teachers who will help us create what is possible!

Follow along and learn along with us by subscribing at the button at the top of this page – or if you are reading this via email, at this link. Thanks!

Mural: Downtown Santa Barbara

These 3 foundation leaders spent time with Creating the Future’s founder, Hildy Gottlieb, to share their thinking about the factors that lead to collaboration, and ultimately, to making a bigger difference in our communities.

 Download and listen to these interviews, and be inspired to try new approaches to your own collaborations!

(To listen right now, just click on the player
or follow the instructions to download to listen later)

]]> http://blogs.creatingthefuture.org/philanthropy/collaboration-and-beyond/feed/ 0 http://blogs.creatingthefuture.org/philanthropy/tips-while-youre-waiting-for-the-grant/ http://blogs.creatingthefuture.org/philanthropy/tips-while-youre-waiting-for-the-grant/#respond Fri, 27 Jun 2014 02:34:45 +0000 http://ecbiz206.inmotionhosting.com/~creat512/blogs/philanthropy/?p=5663 You have written proposals for your program. You are confident you will find the funding you need. But for now, you are waiting.

Or perhaps you are waiting on the results of your big annual event, the cash from which will carry your organization for many months.

The longer you wait, the louder you hear that voice of fear asking, “What if we don’t get the money? What will we do?”

This fear is normal. To a great extent, it is rooted in reality. Not everyone gets every grant they request. Not every event raises all the money an organization needs.

And while the experts tell you, “That’s why you need to diversify revenue streams,” that seems like a huge leap – something big to learn about, that may even feel more uncertain than waiting to hear about the results of grants or events!

If this is the boat you find yourself in, this post is for you. We asked experts in the fundraising world this question:

“While they’re waiting to hear if their grant was approved or their event was successful, what are some things people can try, to add one simple funding tool to their bag of tricks?”

Here is what those wise minds suggested:

Mary Cahalane
• Call your top ten donors, just to talk.
• Ask your board to send three personal notes to donors or interested individuals.
• Just start building relationships with people as well as institutions!

Susan Detwiler
Ask yourself, “Who else is asking for grant money from this organization?” then, “Who else funds these other organizations?” A great way to identify new potential partners / donors / grantors / collaborators. You can find the answers to both of these in Foundation Center, Guidestar, and/or Grantspace.

Dan Duncan
Start any new activity with the question, “What can we do with what we already have to get what we want?” And then start doing that thing, and think about money as a way to help do more of what you will now already be doing. It is easier to raise money to support something you are already doing successfully than to start something.

Marc Pitman
Call five previous granters to thank them for making some specific aspect of your program work.

Rebecca Henderson
Dessert parties are very successful in my part of the country, inviting friends and family to learn about the organization. Sometimes they’re presented as morning coffees or afternoon teas, as well.

Jane Garthson
When I became an ED, I found the organization so focused on what one funder would fund (65% of budget) that they had not looked more broadly at other options. I asked, “What else could we be accomplishing if we had the money? And who might fund THAT?” We got a large grant from another government department that had never been asked before.

For events, I’ve found that running outreach events – free or mostly free – is a great way to bring people into the event to generates the revenue.

As an example, my international music festival knows we need to grow local participation, mostly from younger music lovers with little disposable income, who are not likely to pay for weekend attendance at something unknown.

So I run one participatory music event annually at a specialty book store (which loves that we bring in additional crowds for book sales on a dreary Sunday in February in Toronto). Another volunteer runs an annual showcase concert in free space at a library, hosted by a special collection relevant to our music. I’ve run a family concert with songs for kids at a nearby park, outdoors. None of this costs us anything, and it helps promote the actual paid event later on.

Norman Olshansky
Create a plan for how you will keep the funder involved and informed as a stakeholder within your organization.

Pauline Urbano Hechler
1) Go see your top donors just to catch them up and say thanks.
2) Work with a mail house to do an acquisition mailing to build your donor base. Don’t expect to net anything except new donors.
3) Call smaller donors to say thank you.

Ann Vermel
As long as you have already written that proposal, look around your local business community for likely program partners and/or sponsors, and revise the basic proposal to fit a pitch for partial support from them.

If you think your general case is strong, consider turning it into a presentation for a local service organization who needs to know more about your work. Or turn it into an OpEd piece. Uou crafted that gorgeous prose; get the most you can out of it!

Donna Hicks Melton
1) List all the ways the community benefits from your program
2) List all the other groups and individuals who care about that issue
3) See what you can do together / who you can partner with

Taking a page out of Tom Ahern’s playbook, it really is about reminding people what is in it for them as members of the community, when they all come together to strengthen a community by supporting a food cupboard or crisis nursery, an arts program, etc. Then getting a number of partners that “get it,” to build momentum.

So… what is your favorite tip for fundraising while you are waiting for the grant to be approved or the event to be a success?

At our most recent board meeting for Creating the Future, we took time to deeply explore the role financial management, reporting, and leadership should play in the organization. As a demonstration project exploring what could be possible for all boards, we spend a fair amount of time engaged in a process talking about process. I personally think this is at the heart of leadership and creating space for process is essential to organizational success, but I found it particularly relevant here.

Many of us come to financial issues, be they our own personal ones or those of an organization with which we are involved, from a place of reactivity. We get a report or a statement showing us what has transpired and are asked to react. Let’s look at how different people react:

•  For those who consider themselves “not numbers people,” fear and embarrassment are the first reactions as they confront something unfamiliar and intimidating. Fear and embarrassment don’t generally lead to engagement and inquiry. These folks are hoping that we can quickly move on and begin talking about something else that they understand.

• For those who understand the accounting side of things, they see transactions showing how money came into and went out of the organization and what the “bottom line” looks like with regard to being in positive or negative asset to liability ratios. If things are not balancing, these people look to solutions that effect one side of the equation or the other. We cut expenses or we increase revenue. The focus is on balancing the books.

So we end up with either an ostrich, head-in-the-sand, or a terrier, going-down-the-rabbit-hole/head-in- the-dirt, response. In both cases the conversation or lack thereof being all about money.

Here’s the thing, when we lead with money (or financial reports), we predispose ourselves to thinking about the work we do as just transactional. We think in terms of buying solutions. Think about the language we hear – “what will it cost?”, “do we have enough to pay for?”, “how much do we need to raise?” This thinking separates us from the process of actually creating community benefit. Rather than “being” part of the work we are simply agents “buying” the work.

To me, leadership is a “being” activity embedded in creating change. If we are not working to change something, we don’t need to lead. We can just manage. Through my work, I’ve had the privilege of talking with many executive leaders. When asked what they believe would support the success of the organizations they serve, nearly all of them say more leadership from staff and board.  So what would make financial work less reactive and managerial and more leaderful?* Context and Process!!

Context and process are the foundations for leadership. Leaders envision something different from what it is today, consider what would make that possible, take stock of where we are today, take ownership and responsibility for making things happen, and create space for the process to play out. For financial work, this requires establishing the context and identifying the process that makes leadership possible.

So consider what financials would be the response to. What leaderful conversation would you want staff and board to be having that would naturally lead them to ask about resources – how they are engaged, how well an organization stewards them, and what it would take to grow and sustain them. In this scenario, financials are the result of active inquiry not a requisite reporting and oversight response.

For this to happen we would allow for process and would structure our conversations differently so the context gives meaning to the response. Consider a board meeting driven not by reporting, but by the following questions in the following order

• We had a hypothesis about how we could create change in our community
  • First, is everyone clear on what that is?
  •  Great, what are we seeing as results?

• Do the results and observations warrant revisiting the hypothesis?
  •  If so, what will make it more successful?
  •  What can we (those of us in this room) do that draws on our strengths to make that change possible?

• How are we doing with sustaining the work and/or allowing for change as we look to the future?
  •  Are we engaging resources (staff, volunteers, revenue, in-kind assets, board, etc.) as we expected?
  •  Are we expending resources as we expected?
  •  What can we learn about our business model (how we work to create our intended benefit/impact) from how resources have been engaged and used?
  • Do we need to adjust our model in order to maintain a healthy, sustainable organization?
    • If so, what can we do that draws on our strengths to make changes possible?

Through this line of inquiry, we continue to reinforce what all of our work is intended to make possible for our community. We are ensuring that everyone understands how we thought we could do it. Then s we delve into how well it is actually going. Asking these questions naturally leads us to asking about resources, of which money will likely be an important one. Furthermore, it will also shape how we want to see that information in order to support the questions we have. So we have created a context for the financial discussion that everyone can be a part of and we are shaping the mechanics of our reporting to be responsive to the conversations we want to have.

So it’s not about financial conversations, it’s about unleashing leadership opportunities by providing context and allowing the process to happen. In doing so, we engage more people and lead ourselves to meaningful conversations that include money, but also so much more…

* I know this is not a word, but it captures the essence of something filled with leaders and leadership.

(note this blog is cross posted on orgforward.net/blog)

Since our early exploratory meetings, both the Pennsylvania Association of Nonprofit Organizations and Creating the Future staff have been clear about our mutual goals for the joint conference we are planning for April of this year.

We have seen the conference as one among many first steps towards the goal of accelerating and supporting a movement that is already happening in communities all around us…

• a movement to build stronger relationships and trust
• to build more participation within communities
• to identify and build upon the strengths that already exist
• all towards the shared vision we all have for the future of our communities

We have been as intentional as possible to incorporate those ends into every aspect of the conference planning, from the breakout sessions to encouraging fuller participation by “vendors” (and our desire to find a less transactional word for those partners!); from the plenary and networking sessions to the way the conference is evaluated for success.

Now it is time for us to walk the talk in how we budget for this event.

Does Budgeting Have to be Where Values and Vision Go to Die?
Somehow we have all come to believe – nonprofits and for-profit businesses alike – that the only way we can incorporate vision and values into the way we resource our work is to adopt an “ethics policy.” Because we have not been shown another way to think about all those budget line items, we think the only way to budget is the way we’ve always done it – that vision and values may apply to the products and services we provide, but not to the cold hard reality of budgeting.

The truth is just the opposite. Budgeting and resourcing our work can look very different from what we know. They can absolutely incorporate all our vision, all our values, as tools for identifying, building upon and nurturing our existing strengths.

At its August and September 2013 board meetings, Creating the Future’s board committed to find ways for our budgeting to both build upon and nurture the assets we already have. 

Both those activities are vital to walking the talk of the world we all want to see – building upon our assets, AND nurturing and growing them. Do any of us want to see a world where we use up our assets and have nothing left, operating from scarcity year after year?

In the financial world, smart investors wouldn’t dream of spending down their principal and using it up. The smart investor finds ways to build her life upon the income that principal generates (using the money for what she needs) while also finding ways to grow that asset (growing it while she uses it).

That is what Asset-Based Budgeting and Resourcing is all about.

Tenets
There are 3 basic tenets to Asset-Based Budgeting and Resourcing:

1. Walk the talk of your vision and values in your budgeting and planning for resources
2. Build on what you already have: Identify assets that are needed, and who might already have those assets.
3. Make every effort to nurture and grow assets vs. using them up

In our experience, this is not just an approach to developing resources for community organizations. This approach to resource development is what creates strong businesses as well.

Example: PANO / Creating the Future Conference
Common budgets contain a list of line items, then cash in /out, then totals.

When we are focused on assets, though, we must look beyond just cash, to consider the things we really want. We don’t want money, we want a hotel room. And we don’t even really want a hotel room, we want a warm, cozy, inviting place to stay.

In most budgets, that warm cozy place to stay is identified as follows: $200. That is transactional thinking.

When we look beyond that $200, and instead seek that warm, cozy, inviting place to stay, the possibilities expand exponentially.

As an example, we have had partners put us up in some of the most beautiful homes we could have imagined.

In some cases, the owner was away, and we had the whole house to ourselves. In other cases, the owner made us feel like kings.

In one case, the homeowner not only shared her home and made us a breakfast we will never forget; she also came to the event. As a local business woman who had never really gotten involved in community work before, this was huge… because that one evening led her to deep involvement with that effort long after we left!

That’s what it means to Walk the talk of your vision and values in your budgeting and planning for resources.

The following is one way to approach this, using one small aspect of our joint PANO / Creating the Future conference: 3 days of Creating the Future training for the conference planning team, condensing our 5-day immersion into 3 jam-packed days. (We encourage you to share other tools you have found for accomplishing this same result.)

Columns #2, #3 and #4 on the chart below describe everything a budget might include for this training, broken down to make clear that whether they belong to someone in the room or someone in the community outside the room, these items are all assets – real tangible things that we ignore when we identify them only by their cash value. (For reference, Column #5 is what it would cost if this were a cash-only budget.)

To see a full page pdf of this chart, click here.

Now the question: How can we identify and grow these assets while using them? Here are just some ideas (we’d love to know your own ideas!). All these ideas are rooted in a view of partnership that is about learning together, applying what we learn to our individual work, and putting what we have into the pot – the concept of Collective Enoughness.

Mission:
• Creating the Future receive vital feedback to help us create more condensed trainings like this, and share that openly (as we are doing here), so that everyone learns together.
• Creating the Future, Community Foundation and PANO gather data to further other aspects of each of our work individually, and our work collectively.

Lodging:
• Can we work with the conference hotel? Nurture relationships with other hotels? Help them and their staff get them more involved with other community-minded businesses in their community?
• Is someone going to be out of town for that time period, who wants to lend their home? Can we include them in the conference in some way, or otherwise help them achieve their own goals?

Airfare and Rental Car:
• Airline miles?
• Credit card points?

Meals not included in event:
• Build relationships with local restaurants (Get them involved in the conference? Convene them with other businesses trying to do good? Perhaps the hotel!)

TrainingVenue:
• Is there a training facility, large conference space, empty storefront (with heat!)?
• Does United Way or a local community foundation have space to share? Can we include them in the conference or other efforts that will help them achieve their own mission?

Meals (for the event):
• Is there a local group whose mission is to help parolees learn culinary skills?
• Perhaps a group that trains the developmentally disabled in kitchen arts or catering?
• Could we engage them in the capacity building work we are doing, so they benefit beyond our cash support?

By looking at functions as things to be accomplished (vs. line items), we can think more creatively about using the assets that already exist all around us. And by being aware to go beyond just USING those assets, but to also GROW those assets, we can think beyond transactional relationships, and start to build the trust and participation this event is all about.

Many organizations already do this naturally. What this system does is to help them with the mechanics, and to do so from a position of shared strength – the position of collective enoughness that says, “Together we have everything we need.”

When we stop thinking only of ourselves and our needs, and begin to look out to the community as a whole, we realize that scarcity only exists when we are alone. When we link arms together, we indeed have everything we need. And when we nurture those links, they bloom and grow.

Which holds true for any activity that must be budgeted, nonprofit or for-profit, anywhere in the world.

We hope you will share your own experience with this approach, as well as your ideas, in the comments below, or at any of our meetings as we plan this conference. You can find our past meetings online here. And subscribe to our Walking the Talk blog to be notified of upcoming meetings!