Current e-Journal

Catalytic Thinking Exercise:
The Problem with Budgeting
If one thing is universal in all community benefit organizations – nonprofit, social enterprise, government programs – it is budgeting. Looking at a budget in any of those settings is pretty much the same as every other, and the same as a business, too.

And that is the problem with budgeting when it comes to social change.

Because the way we budget for community benefit organizations was not designed for our needs. Budgeting in these settings has been copied and pasted entirely from the way businesses plan.

And while everything in a business relates to cash, including and especially the “bottom line” of cash profit, none of that is true for the work of social change and community benefit.

• Where does your volunteer support show up on the budget your board approves?
• Where do your in-kind donations appear on the budget you share with funders and investors?

The answer: Nowhere.

Even more detrimental, the “bottom line” of community improvement – where is THAT in your budget?

The only story our budgets tell is a tiny slice of what it really takes to achieve the community-focused ends that are our actual bottom line.

By focusing only on cash, we are telling ourselves and the world that cash is all that matters. And while it is ridiculous to measure our true bottom line – improving life in our communities – by looking at a cash bottom line, it is also hugely harmful to only consider cash when we budget for the means to do that work.

Those cash-only budgets tell the world that cash is more important than the volunteer who donates 40 hours every week as the receptionist. That cash is more important than the free rent you receive, that allows your program to flourish. That cash is more important than the hundreds of community members who gather every weekend to eliminate invasive species from the nearby forest, or who come together for a neighborhood clean-up.

If we were inventing a budgeting system from scratch and someone suggested this as an approach, they would be laughed out of the room.

And yet these are the budgets we use to tell the story of what it takes to do our work.

Try this:
To tell a more complete story of what your work truly entails, a great start is to add a new column to that budget: Shared Resources.

That is where you can list the value of your in-kind donations, your volunteers, and other items you receive by sharing with other organizations and with community members. Here is a sample of what that might look like.

Collective Enoughness Sample Budget
Diaper Bank Example

Item / Function	Shared Resources	Cash	Total
Warehousing & Distribution	$49,999 (donated by Food Bank for $1/yr)	$1	$50,000
Casework	$400,000 (done by partner agencies)	$0	$400,000
Office	$12,000 (donated by Food Bank)	$0	$12,000
Executive Director		$100,000	$100,000
Diapers	$1,800,000 (donated by community members)	$50,000 purchase odd sizes	$1,850,000
Volunteer exec assistant	$30,000 (20 hours / week valued at $60k/year)	$0	$30,000
Volunteers running diaper drives	$60,000 (100 volunteers coordinating drives at schools etc., printing flyers, dropping off diapers at warehouse, etc. 1 wk / year at $15 / hour)	$0	$60,000
	$2,351,999	$150,001	$2,502,000

This form of budgeting tells a far more complete story of your programs.

“Our program does $2.5 million of work on a cash budget of $150,000.”

Now that’s a story folks will want to know more about!

Yes, this budget still speaks the language of cash. Sadly, that cash-language is still the one we are all trained to understand. But at least this budget tells a more complete story about the value of the work you do, even if it is through that cash lens.

And when you take that story to your board and your supporters, they will have a more complete sense of what it takes to do this work.

This work is about so much more than money. It’s about the whole of what we build together, that none of us can accomplish on our own. And importantly, it is about the fact that by pitching in together, we are building community in the very act of doing our work.

As we ask different questions about something as mundane as budgeting, we begin to shift our mindsets about what is important. We begin to see through the lens of Collective Enoughness, that together we have everything we need.

The story your budget tells could be far more important than cash: Pitching in together builds community.

That simple shift can change how your team, your board, and your funders see your work. It can change how you honor your volunteers and in-kind supporters. Because when we change the way we see things, things change.

That is why Collective Enoughness is such an important component of the Catalytic Thinking framework

Resources to Further Your Practice:

• LEARN: This click-and-play class provides an asset-based approach to resource development, including the practice of Collective Enoughness. And it’s pay-what-you-can, because we never want money to stand in the way of your learning. Start learning here…
• READ: The next steps in Creating the Future’s own work is Collective Enoughness writ large – sharing the actual implementation of our mission. See what that looks like here…
• PRACTICE: This short exercise will help you see all the assets you have to build upon and share with others in your community. Start sharing now…