The clock strikes twelve on New Year’s Eve. For a lot of people it is a time of celebration; it is a time for champagne, confetti and Dick Clark. However, there is another reality to the beginning of the new year. It is a tough time for many nonprofit and faith-based organizations trying to raise money and to regroup. It is a time of anxiousness and feelings of fear and distress with so many unanswered questions about the coming year. What do we do? Where do we go to raise money? How can we fulfill or mission? How can we keep our doors open and pay our staff? Where do we start? Yes, January 1, 2009, did represent the start of a new year which also means the fund-raising budget has been rolled back to zero. It is now a clean slate with all new goals and expectations. The anxiety we feel is understandable. We have just come off the worst financial year in our lifetime. The Dow Jones average was down 36% and NASDAQ 40% and both indicators are down from that number so far this year. People by the hundreds of thousands have lost their jobs, lost their homes, lost savings and lost retirement income. We have borrowed our way into a financial quagmire and each and every one of us is affected by it - either personally or professionally.
It is pretty easy to feel hopelessness. It is pretty easy to feel uneasy and it is pretty clear that 2009 is going to be more than difficult, thus the topic and title of this blog: Mission Impossible. These two words should really have a question mark behind it as the two words really need to ask the question, “Mission Impossible?” This can have more than one meaning. Is carrying out our mission impossible under the current economic conditions? Or is the mission to raise the necessary funds to sustain our organization through tough times impossible? Both are important and both are difficult questions to answer.
In my opinion, it depends. It depends on a lot of factors. It depends on a certain amount of luck and it depends on a whole lot of creativity, ingenuity and sweat equity on the part of nonprofits. It is also the time for self evaluation and organization evaluation. You must ask yourselves some tough questions; what happens if my organization goes away today or tomorrow? Nobody wants to consider these questions, but we must.
First let’s think about it another way. Don’t you think that now is the time to call in all your favors? Now is the time to have a plan that is different than previous plans and techniques. Now is the time to take a different path and strategy than ever taken before. You may think that this is all well and good, but what exactly does that mean? I’ll tell you what it means to me in the form of a question: “What if?”
What if?
What if philanthropy ramped up full force and advocated for federal assistance for our nonprofit organizations as part of the economic stimulus package currently being considered? It seems likely; every group has been considered (financial institutions, small businesses, the automotive industry, and manufacturing). Why don’t we really push for the nonprofit sector? What if we pull out all the stops to contact every member of congress, the new presidential team and anyone else that can help? I believe the time is now to include nonprofit organizations in the stimulus package. We have unprecedented volume of requests for assistance during these times.
The Recovery and Reinvestment Bill of 2009 is broad and is intended to jumpstart the economy. We must also insure that in addition to helping with emergency food and shelter, community services and community development, we make finds available for nonprofits to get emergency bridge loans to stay afloat or to deal with severe cash flow problems. We just spent $350 billion on the financial sector and we are not sure where it went. Now, let’s spend $15 billion on the nonprofit sector and save services that need to continue now more than ever and save those important nonprofit jobs. Action is now needed.
What if?
What if you reached every person who has ever given to your organization since its inception and asked then to give again this year and give a little more?
What if?
What if we were able to mobilize a new group of givers who have never been asked but can give some funds at some level?
What if? What if community service becomes the hallmark of this country and this state, and we are able to energize a whole new cadre of volunteers to give time, talent and even money to your cause?
What if?
What if each board member gave two or three of four times more than they have given before and 100% of your board members gave something and they ask 10 of their friends to give something?
What if?
What if somebody who has been touched by your organization knows somebody of wealth and they are enthralled by the passion and enthusiasm of this person that they chose to give a large gift knowing the circumstances your organization faces at this point in time?
What if?
What if somebody who knows your organization organizes a golf tournament, bowling event, gala, town’s largest garage sale or something else to benefit your organization?
What if?
What if the Civitans, Rotarians, Kiwanis, Masons, Elks, Lions, Moose, Optimist Clubs, church youth groups, senior groups and every other organization considered helping your organization in some small way?
What if? What if the local bank, insurance company, doctor, lawyer, local business or business person gave something, anything during these times?
What if?
What if the local printer donated one order or the office supply company donated one box of paper and the other vendors each of us work with gave something?
What if? What if somebody’s grandmother or another person passes away after a long and fruitful life and left just a portion of their estate to your organization?
What if?
What if you partnered with an organization you have previously viewed as your competitor and your partnership saves money and delivers services in a more efficient manner?
What if?
What if the only way your services can continue at all is to merge with another organization with a like mission and similar purpose?
What if?
And what if the ultimate answer is, we just can’t make it?
I am saying try everything you can now and don’t give up. But you must do things differently and think differently. Tighten your belt. Yes, prepare for difficult times. Yes, do more with less. And yes, be willing to make more sacrifices than you care to think about.
There are hundreds of opportunities and thousands of ways to involve people who can give, get, work or support. It is the fundamental principle we have always operated under during good times and bad times in the nonprofit sector. It is the same principle we must operate under today only with more passion, perseverance, gusto and every other emotion we can muster. There are nearly 335 days left in 2009. Don’t waste one of them. Don’t waste an hour and don’t waste a minute.
Make a plan. Be creative. Be willing to take a different approach. Don’t be afraid to ask people you have never asked before to help. Don’t be afraid to go back to those who have helped in the past and ask for more help. And do it with every singe ounce of passion and God-given ability you have.
You see, the mission is not impossible at all. The opportunities are there. You just have to make what seems impossible – possible. In his book “The Soul of Politics,” Jim Wallace writes, “Hope unbelieved is considered nonsense. But hope believed is history in the process of being changed.”
Tom Keith is the president of the Sisters of Charity Foundation of South Carolina.
