Now friend, if you know me then I hope you think of me as a typically happy, optimistic, dreaming, lover-not-fighter. I was enamored at first with the concept of Giving Tuesday - what a wonderful response to the consumeristic marketing of Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. As someone who works with a lot of social profit organizations (the new re-branding term for “non-profits”), I receive a ton of newsletters and texts from amazing organizations doing amazing things - and today they are all asking for money.

Oh to have a billion dollars and be able to give to them all! I just hate saying no when they are all doing the critical work that is needed. I can practically see the faces of the people they are supporting, feel the warmth of love they bring to the world, hear the excitement from the community and employees alike when they can do their work unburdened by budget restraints.

But my dear friend - the times they are a-changing. Giving Tuesday is one innovation within the larger old-school ecosystem of Fundraising, and that ecosystem is already being challenged to its breaking point. It isn’t just the new administration (although that should scare us shitless for social profit funding), it isn’t just inflation and low-wages (though this is deeply impacting individual donors), it isn’t just wealth disparity, or data-hungry foundations, or scandals about overhead costs, or any other single societal or sector issue.

It all adds up to a basic question - do we still want to run our organizations within the status quo? Do we have to do things “the way they have always been done” or do we have a special opportunity, in this time of struggle, to re-invent and re-imagine how we do our work?

I’m hungry for this - hungry for new and different ways to support our work. Right now may be the catalyst time for risk and innovation. And here are some ideas! None of them are new or original to me. I am just one in a long line of social profit devotees, trying to do what I can to support the work. But in the current status quo, some of them at least do feel risky and innovative.

​Fractional Tech Team: I’ve put this line in the sand before - all social profit organizations need to have consistent support dedicated to their data and technology. OK, you can’t hire someone in-house yet. But before you look to a “managed services” approach, consider building a part-time tech team into your budget that is not request-based or project-based, but is a long-term partner in strategy and execution and helping to build the data & tech culture at your organization.

​Your First Tech Hire: The job market sucks. The hiring process sucks. Job descriptions suck. Non-profit organization pay usually sucks. So let’s up-end this process and embrace apprenticeship. For organizations wanting to create and hire into their first data & tech role in-house, have a Mentor develop the role, train an apprentice into it, and provide multi-year support for the organization and the person in the role.

​Individual Donor Cultivation: Fundraising is supposed to be about bringing people into relationship with your organization and your community in ways that compel them to support your work with their money. Stop just sending canned email thank-yous to your individual donors and start making personalized videos that connect your mission, people, and donation asks through relationship building.

​Earned Revenue-Stream Creation: Fundraising doesn’t just have to be about asking for donations. Social profit organizations are allowed to make money through businesses related to their missions. Explore the opportunities for decreasing your organization’s reliance on donation asks and grant asks (especially federal funding grants) by creating earned revenue-streams.

​Spreadsheet Skills for Social Justice: Somehow it is now radical and subversive to suggest that spreadsheets can actually be used well and effectively for data work. But that’s what I’m saying - spreadsheets can be used for social profit work in very effective ways. On the professional development side, people with impressive spreadsheet chops use those skills and knowledge across all data & technology work. It is just a no-brainer to me that everyone should be empowered to use spreadsheets to make data and tech work for them.

​Logic Models for Impact Measurement: Everyone working in social justice work should be able to connect the dots from their individual work inputs to the mission and impact of the organization. Of course this is good for reporting on our work to donors, but I don’t care so much about that (remember, I’m trying to up-end the fundraising landscape in general). What I do care about is how we evaluate our work to know where we are doing good and where it would be good to pivot. Every organization needs a Logic Model or something similar - so if you don’t have one come and develop one!

​Imposter Syndrome Group Coaching: We really don’t have time for doubting ourselves and whether we are good enough to do our work. It is just a distraction and a mechanism of oppression and it just freaking has to go. This group coaching program aims to completely eliminate imposter syndrome from our collective psyche, one cohort at a time. Right now, it’s TOTALLY FREE. I’m looking for a few more people to join the first cohort in January, so reply to this email or forward the information to a friend who would benefit from getting out from under imposter syndrome and getting down to doing their amazing work without doubting themselves.