mission
The Chicken or the Egg – Part II
So, rumor has it that some of you had a bit of a conversation around my last blog “What comes first, Of course since I live in the 1950’s, in other words not on Facebook, I have absolutely no idea what all you guys said. But thanks to my dear fellow My Jewish Coach, Donna Schwartz, I have, in spite of crashing my 1950’s computer, kicking and screaminly entered your universe and joined Facebook!!!the chicken or the egg?”
As soon as I accomplished this ever so mighty feat, I felt really proud of my very clever self. But there was one small problem…I have absolutely no idea what to do now. And most importantly, I have no idea how to communicate with you guys (please note that a guy is very often a woman!) when each and every one of you decide that the following is something you simply do not agree with!
Yes. I still believe NO MONEY – NO MISSION. Yes, the MONEY must come first. That being said, without a compelling mission, (remember your really, really really great idea from last month?) finding the money is gonna be a tad difficult. Does that mean that the MISSION comes first? Hum. I do believe that we are now smack dab back in that whole chicken and egg conundrum.
So now here are the three Jane P. Stein recommendations for getting around this whole mishegas.
1. Take that really really really great idea – now becoming in your own mind a sorta mission statement – and call the very smartest person you know. To qualify who this particular very smart person should be, it needs to be someone with a whole boat load of money and a willingness to part with it for organizations with compelling missions (you know…that guy with the philanthropic soul).
2. Make an appointment (a date for coffee or “just 15 minutes of your time at your office”) to meet face to face.
3. Use the nine magic words “I really would love to pick your amazing brain” followed very quickly (no breathing allowed) by the eight even more magical words “I promise I won’t ask you for money”.
And BINGO! You are on your way!! This is your opportunity to test drive your idea. Call it your very own personal feasibility study (and just like those fancy and very expensive feasibility studies we all know and don’t particularly love) your very smart person knows that you will be back one day asking for money! But at this meeting, DO NOT ASK FOR MONEY…and if this very smart person begs you to take money to get started, please, please keep your promise and DO NOT TAKE THE MONEY. You are there to paint the picture of how much better the world will be with the implementation of your mission idea. This is your chance to engage another person into dreaming your dream with you.
Of course if you cannot engage this very smart person into dreaming with you, it may be time to go back to the drawing board. No engagement, no money. No money, no mission.
But if you see this guy’s eyes light up. And you see this guy move forward to the edge of that great big scary office chair, pitch your little heart out, but be sure that you take a whole lot of the time to get input from the very smart person.
Because once that input starts getting put in, you will find yourself with a new partner to your dream…one with the money (and the friends and the contacts and the connections) to get your mission up and running. And then guess what???? MONEY AND MISSION!!!
The Chicken or the Egg
So, which comes first: the money or the mission? “Why, the mission of course” you answer ever so confidently.
But are you sure?
Let’s think about this. How many of you have had a really, really, really good idea for a new program, project or maybe even a whole new nonprofit organization? I see a few hands going up back there in the audience. Good for you: idea first. And then what happened?
Maybe you went to the Board of your JCC or Federation. Maybe you went to the program chair, the executive director, your puppy. And what was said to you in response to your really, really, really good idea?? (Woof does not count here) Great idea! Go find the money and we will move right ahead with it.
What happened next? My guess is that you stuffed that really, really, really good idea right back into your brain and said something to yourself like “I will do that just as soon as I win the Lottery”. And you might have even gone out and bought three lottery tickets to insure that you would be able to implement your really, really, good idea.
I work with a lot of nonprofit organizations, both Jewish and non-Jewish. And I hear a lot of really, really, really good ideas. I teach classes on building and running nonprofit organizations and I hear a lot of really, really, really good ideas. And I always say, “What a really, really, really good idea! How are you going to pay for that?” Now I have many students who say to me “my idea is soooo good that G-d will provide” and we will be up and running very soon.
And to them — and to everyone else — and to you, too — I say “NO MONEY – NO MISSION!”
Raising money, most folks say, is NOT EASY. I think that is because those same folks are thinking “Let’s do a wallk/run” or “Let’s do a big gala” or my personal favorite “Let’s do a golf tournament”. And believe you me, this is NOT the way to get that really, really, really good idea funded. Special events fund raising is time consuming (how many of you have spent 21 ½ hours stuffing goodie bags?), volunteer draining (did you know it takes approximately 932 volunteers to run a run?), dependent on the weather (did I tell you the one about the monsoon over Virginia Beach during our Great Dig for Cystic Fibrosis?), your region’s calendar of special events (I know you checked to see what was happening in the Jewish world that day, but did you know that the Foodbank, Habitat for Humanity, Special Olympics and the American Cancer Society were all holding events that day? Didn’t think so. Did you know that it is really, really, really hard to raise money for a special event if you have no major sponsors to cover the expenses and all of your participants are participating somewhere else? (But more about the raising of major sponsors in a later blog)
It is really, really, really quite simple. The best way to get your really, really, really good idea to become a reality is to begin at the beginning and start to build some really, really, really good relationships with the folks in your community who have three attributes: 1 – a philanthropic soul, 2 – the money to do something with that philanthropic soul and 3 – a wonderful group of friends/acquaintances/business buddies who love and trust them. And that is where the money for your mission will best be found.
So, next time you have a really, really, really good idea, read my blogs! Because over the next few months they are going to be full of ways to raise money without the worries, stress, aggravation or hassle, or as we would say in Yiddish, all the tsuris!
