So much of the conversation surrounding funding for worthy causes and projects reflects a deeply held sense of scarcity of available resources. That’s a shame, inasmuch as that the assumption of scarcity actually induces the reality.
The novelist Robert Louis Stevenson once said “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.” When we are focused upon only what is being currently received in our fundraising efforts, we not only become obsessed with the “what goes to him doesn’t come to me” but we also lower our real productivity by not devoting sufficient energy to the planting.
Plant enough and scarcity isn’t even an issue. Philanthropy is elastic. Stop behaving as though it’s fixed and small. There’s more than enough to go around. Remember Principle 1 of The Eight Principles of Sustainable Fundraising®, Donors are the Drivers™. It’s about them-not us.
