Current e-Journal
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April 8, 2025
Budgeting
from a Place
of Strength
In this week’s Systems Change Newsletter…
- Invitations and Announcements
- Catalytic Thinking Exercise: Budgeting from a Place of Strength
- Resources to Further Your Practice
Invitations & Announcements
Come See Hildy in NY State!
Come join Creating the Future and NYCON (New York Council of Nonprofits) at the NYCON summit! Hildy will be keynoting and facilitating a full day of possibility for New York nonprofits. Get inspired to what is possible, even in these dark times. Info is here…
We’re Taking a Break
In software development, they call it “eating your own dog food.” Around here we call it walking the talk. Just as we’ve been encouraging folks to take time to rest and revive, we will be doing that for the next few weeks. This newsletter will therefore be on a break until the beginning of May. We hope you all are taking time to restore your energy as well. Because we can’t be at our best for each other unless we are at our best, period.
Catalytic Thinking Exercise:
Budgeting from a Place of Strength
How can we budget mindfully when the economy is so uncertain?
Global inflation. The effect of the tariffs. The stock market affecting the assets of foundations. Instability in government funding.
We are all so used to feeling like the economy is outside our control – led by the ultra-wealthy, by those in power, by people whose entire lives have focused on financial systems we are not part of.
This week’s podcast guest, Emily Kawano, shows us a different way of seeing that mystical creature we think of as The Economy.
What Emily shows us is simple yet profound:
Each of us can be part of creating an economy that works for all of us.
That brings us back to the Greek root of the word economy, the management of the household. That framing leads us to consider how we look at our own organizational households.
And that all starts where all of our internal financial conversations start:
Our organizational budgets.
By rethinking how we budget, we can change the economy of social change. Yes, really. How we raise money. How we think of our fellow changemakers (as competition or allies?).
Changing how we think about budgeting can be a huge step towards creating an economy that works for all of us. And that is where Catalytic Thinking comes
Try this
The budget is where all our financial decisions start. In nonprofits, that all begins at zero every year. With zero-based budgeting, we assume that we begin every year with nothing, and must then figure out how to fill the huge hole that is the revenue side of our equation.
Talk about feeling weak and vulnerable!
Instead, just as we look for assets to build upon in our communities, we can build our organizations' budgets upon what we already have. And just like the assets we build upon when we do asset-based community development work, our own assets are not about having a pile of money. They are about the people, the mission work, and the general stuff we take for granted.
- You may have storage space that others can rent from you
- Or a computer lab that is empty all day until students arrive at 3pm
- You may have a volunteer manager you could share with smaller orgs who can’t afford their own manager
- Or a vehicle that is only used one hour each day, to pick up kids for your after-school program
That brings us back to Emily’s focus in our podcast conversation – the ability to share what we have. That is all about the economic reality of Collective Enoughness.
Collective Enoughness:
Together we have everything we need. It is only on our own that we experience scarcity.
When we build on our interconnectedness, we enhance both our individual strength and our community’s strength. In these times, that collective strength is more important than ever. That is why we are so excited to share Emily’s podcast with you today. And it is why Collective Enoughness is such a big part of the Catalytic Thinking framework. Because together, we really do have everything we need.
Resources to Further Your Practice
- LEARN: Your work deserves more than scarcity-based funding. Explore what it takes to identify assets you may not realize you already have. Start building real sustainability…
- SEE: There is a practical example of our own Shared Resource Budget included in the case statement for Creating the Future’s own fundraising. You can see that example here…
- LISTEN: Emily Kawano’s podcast conversation opens all sorts of ideas about what we can each do to start shifting how we relate to “the economy.” Listen here…
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