Is it brains, finesse, education, hands-on experience, determination, self-confidence, special training. What exactly does it take to succeed in the nonprofit field?
There are many nonprofit educational programs cropping up at universities all around the country yet I honestly don’t know one person, well maybe I know a few, that actually graduated from one of these programs and is currently working in the nonprofit field.
GLOBALIZATION: The world has shrunk. It is truly a small world after all. The barriers of time, geography, language and culture are breaking down at a break-neck pace.
There is a great deal of talk about the accountability of nonprofits. Accountability is on the tip of everyone’s tongue and is being discussed at conferences and seminars and in nonprofit board rooms. It has become a punch line of sorts and frankly is in danger of becoming a meaningless word similar to the “all natural” tag lines you see on just about every food product sold, which have lost total credibility in my opinion.
I assume, which is always a dangerous thing, that you watched Tom Cruise play Jerry Maguire in the movie by that name. Jerry becomes enlightened and goes through an epiphany of sorts and pulls an all-nighter writing his 27 page Mission Statement, that for all intents and purposes is a strategic plan — no one writes a 27 page mission statement. If it really takes 27 pages to articulate a mission there are some serious business issues to work out.
We are all confronted with two seemingly opposing forces with our fundraising efforts. Building a relationship with our donor should always be front and center for us. We know that without a compelling relationship with our supporter no relationship can continue over the long-term — it will simply die out because there is no inspiring reason for it to continue.
