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October 15, 2024

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Asking for what you really want

In this week’s Systems Change Newsletter…

  • Invitations & Announcements
  • Catalytic Thinking Exercise: Asking for what you really want
  • Resources to Further Your Practice

Invitations & Announcements

Grant-writing: A Different Approach
On October 23rd we will apply Catalytic Thinking to grant proposals - and we want YOU to be part of that conversation! Whether you are new to grants or you are a seasoned grants professional looking to up your game, this conversation is free and open to anyone who is interested. What story are we telling? Which funders will we approach? What is our case for support? Experience a different approach here…

Your board could be a force for community impact
Does your board spend most of their time talking about creating impact in your community? Are they engaged and energized? If you wish your board was more of an asset, reach for your organization’s vision, this month’s webinar is for you: Unlocking Your Board’s Potential with Catalytic Thinking. It all starts here…

Catalytic Thinking Exercise:
Asking for what you really want

What is the point of fundraising?
Duh. The point is to raise money. But for what?

And duh again, we’re raising money for the mission. But in the short term, the answer is far more simple:

We’re raising money to buy stuff.

Facilities, equipment, staff time. The immediate reason we raise money is to buy stuff.

What if instead of asking only for cash, your organization asked for all that stuff you really need?

Hildy and Dimitri often share the story of building the world’s first diaper bank. Rather than establishing a cash budget and seeking money to meet that budget, they first asked for what they really needed.

As a result, they shared warehousing space, caseworkers, public relations, transportation, volunteer management, and much more. That meant they only had to raise money for the stuff no one could provide directly.

Think about how much less money you would have to raise if you were sharing a resource rather than needing to own it. Or if someone just gave you the stuff you need, with no strings attached.

  • Vehicles owned by an after school program, that could be shared with a senior center who needs a van in the mornings.
  • Back office functions like bookkeeping and human resources and volunteer coordination. Or extra storage space.
That is the power of Collective Enoughness, the economic theory that together we have everything we need.

Hildy and Dimitri often cite the benefits of building that first diaper bank as a collaboration of community resources.

Collective Enoughness:
Together we have everything we need. It is only on our own that we experience scarcity.

First, from warehousing to casework to everything in between, the diaper bank leadership didn’t have to worry about managing any of that. Imagine having 50 caseworkers across the community, or a busy warehouse operation, and not having to manage ANY of that.

Secondly, yes, they needed significantly less cash.

But most important was the fact that every one of those partners became part of a larger family, all focused on the vision of a community where everyone had their basic needs met. The diaper bank became a place to connect as real people, sharing what they had. The program was building community simply by the way it resourced the stuff they needed.

Unlike money, which is scarce by definition, the real resources we need are abundant and easy to share.

What could your organization accomplish if instead of always seeking money to buy stuff, you asked for what you really need?

 The feeling of wealth is enhanced when you give, not when you take, since, subliminally, giving means you have enough to share, while taking means you may not be getting enough.

  ~ Robert Thurman

Try this:
If this sounds simple, that’s because it is simple. And it is something you can add effortlessly to your year-end appeal this year, or to kick off your new year in January.

Step 1:
First, identify what you really need. You already do that when you create your cash budget, so that step is simple.

Step 2:
Next, simply ask for what you really need. You might identify who in town already has what you need. Or you might simply ask for it outright.

You see us do that every once in a while here at Creating the Future. Instead of tucking that request away at the bottom of the newsletter where few people will see it, we send a short, stand-alone newsletter to ask our community to help with this or that.

And if you’ve ever wondered if people respond to those notes, here are our results:

Every single time we ask, people respond.
Every. Single. Time.

Step 3:
Think about adding just one of those request emails to your year-end appeal. Or send it during the first week of the new year, to set it apart from your cash appeal. Make it short and sweet, simply asking for what you need. Do it as an experiment, to see what happens.

The worst result will be that nothing happens. And the best possible outcome? New friends who are happy to share what they have.

Thinking about resources in this way is powerful for so many reasons. Yes, you will get stuff. And yes, you will save money.

But most importantly, you will be building relationship and community, not based on money, but based on what folks already have, that they are happy to share. That is why the practice of Collective Enoughness is a crucial part of the Catalytic Thinking framework.

Resources to Further Your Practice:

Help Keep Our Programs Freely Available
Creating the Future’s eJournal is free. And there are no financial barriers to our classes – tuition is whatever folks can afford. Because we never want money to stand in the way of people learning.

If you value our content and our approach, please donate here – and please consider becoming a monthly supporter of our work.

eJournal Archives:
If you’re new to our eJournal, or just want to remind yourself of past practice exercises we’ve shared, check out our eJournal archives here.

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Creating the Future's Mission
Teach people how to change the systems they find themselves in,
to create a future different from our past -
all by changing the questions they ask.

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