Let me speak to those of you who are founders for a moment.  You know who you are – you started a nonprofit because you saw a need that needed to be met and felt a spart in your heart to do something about it.

I want you to remember that spark for when times get hard. Sometimes when we are following a dream, we can experience bumpy roads.  Things don’t always go as planned.  Sometimes there are detours and sometimes we get confused about what we’re doing, wondering if we’re doing the right thing.  When you start to feel this way, go back to the spark.  Go back to the reason you started the nonprofit in the first place.

Remember that there are people out there waiting for you to offer services so they can be helped.  In fact, your nonprofit is probably the answer to many prayers.  That’s why you can’t give up and you can’t quit.  When the going gets tough, keep going.

One day, you’ll be able to look back and see your path.  You’ll be so proud of what you’ve accomplished and the many lives you’ve impacted.  And you’ll be glad you stayed focused.

Want help making your nonprofit dreams a reality?  We’re launching my new book “Get Fully Funded:  How to Raise the Money of Your Dreams” on September 30.  In it, you’ll find all the steps you need to take to raise big money for your nonprofit.  Stay tuned for more details. coming very soon!  And until then, enjoy the 30 Days of Tips right here on the Get Fully Funded blog.

There’s a phrase that I heard not so long ago that I love and I want to share it with you.

What you think about is what you bring about.

In other words, your thoughts determine your outcomes.  Think about it for a moment.  If you focus on negative stuff, what is your experience?  More negative stuff.  If you focus on positive things?  More positive things.

It directly applies to fundraising.  If everything you think about around fundraising is negative, you’re bound to have a negative experience. The more positive you can be, the more likely you can raise the money you want and your organization needs.

Here are some negative thoughts you might be thinking, and their positive counterpart.

I challenge you to monitor your thoughts this week.  Everytime you catch yourself thinking something negative, say to yourself “cancel!”  Then think a more positive version of that thought.  And see what happens.  I bet you’ll have a different experience and see some amazing things start to happen!

I saw this list recently in the newsletter of GreatNonprofits (www.greatnonprofits.org).  It’s so good I just had to share!

10. “If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.”  – Mother Teresa

9. “Volunteers do not necessarily have the time; they just have the heart.” – Elizabeth Andrew

8. “A bone to the dog is not charity.  Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog.”  – Jack London

7. “The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.” – Oscar Wilde

6. “Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.” – Mark Twain

5. “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better.  It’s not.”  – Dr. Seuss

4. “Everybody can be great. Because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve.  You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve… You don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve.  You only need a heart full of grace.  A soul generated by love.”  – Martin Luther King, Jr.

3. “I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catchers mitt on both hands.  You need to be able to throw something back.”  – Maya Angelou

2. “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”   – Winston Churchill

1. “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”  – Anne Frank

I spent the day with Mike Dooley this past Saturday at his event in Charlotte, NC. If you aren’t familiar with Mike, he writes ‘Notes from the Universe” (www.tut.com)

Mike is an entertaining speaker and the day was full of ‘aha’ moments for me. I thought I’d share with you some of what I learned.

Situations will repeat themselves until you take responsibility. History repeats itself, right?  I see that in my own life.  Taking responsibility means that I acknowledge my part in the situation and make a conscious choice to change my behavior.  This is such a simple thing, but has profound consequences.

There are basically 2 steps to getting what you want. 1. Have a dream.  2. Take action. How simple is that? So many people have a dream of what they want in life, but never take a step toward it.  They talk themselves out of it before they get started.  And Mike says it doesn’t have to be a big step – you can take baby steps toward your dreams and see results.  Cool?

Just because you can’t see the miracle doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. This is about faith.  He tells the story of a person boarding a ship in New York headed to England.  Two days into the trip, the person notices that the scenery hasn’t changed and decides nothing is happening, when in fact, the ship is exactly on course to reach its destination.  The traveller simply needs to have faith that the goal will ultimately be reached.

If you want change, you must act. You can’t sit around and complain about your cicumstances and expect things to get better.  You have to do something about it.  In other words, if I want a different result, I have to change what I’m doing.  This one really struck me. I think I’ve been wanting change in one area of my life, but not doing anything to make it happen.

Some things that look like failure are actually stepping stones to the thing you want.  Nothing is ever wasted.  That means that something that seemed like a horrible failure was actually preparing you for something else.  For example, this is my third time to have my own business.  The first time I consider a failure.  The second time just didn’t work out either.  This time is very different and I can see that the first two times taught me so much that I needed to know in order to make this one work.

Do all you can with what you’ve got from where you are. This is one of my favorite quotes from Mike! It measn that you have to take action.  You can’t expect things to just fall into your lap, because it doesn’t work that way. Take baby steps.  Do something.  Move toward your goal.

The more you celebrate, the more you’ll be given to celebrate. Love this!  To me, it means focus on the positive and the things that are going well, and you’ll have more of it.  Lately, I’ve been keeping a journal of all the things that happen during the day that are good – things I accomplished during the day, things that randomly happened, happy surprises, etc. - and I find that it really lifts me up.

You never know when you’re about to reach the point of success, so don’t give up. This is another one that really struck me.  Like the person on the ship that isn’t seeing visible progress, sometimes it’s hard to tell when we’re getting close to seeing our dreams come true.  For me, it means I can’t give up.  I have to keep putting one foot in front of the other, especially on those days when I’d rather just throw in the towel.

What are your impressions of my takeaways from my day with Mike Dooley?  Please click on the comment link and share.

Thanks to everyone who has been asking/texting/posting to make sure we’re okay following the devastating tornadoes last Wednesday.  I’ll have to say, it was a very long evening.  We knew for a couple of days that severe weather was coming.  It started in earnest about 4 pm and we watched the local weather broadcast until nearly midnight, with one tornado warning after another. I’ll tell you, it was exhausting!  We were on pins and needles knowing that at a moment’s notice, we’d need to run for the basement.  And I kept texting my daughter to make sure she was okay at school.  Over the course of the evening, 4 tornadoes came within 15 miles of our house, yet the worst we had was heavy rain, strong winds, and some hail.

Some of our neighbors in the next counties weren’t as lucky.  Many lost homes and some lost their lives.  They say it’s one of the worst outbreak of tornadoes ever.  I’m so stunned by the devastation.  Every day, I find some bit of evidence of the storm in my yard.  Every day, we find bits of siding, small pieces of roofing, and general debris.  One day we found part of a baby picture in the garden.  Yesterday, I found a recipe card, a couple of baseball cards, and part of someone’s homework behind the house.  Mom found a direct deposit slip close to the fence.  I found a Christmas photo near the creek.  And every one of these tugs at my heart, reminding me of those who lost everything in the storms.

I’m so grateful for all those who are jumping in to help.  Our local rescue squad mobilized immediately and drove an hour south to help one of the hardest hit areas in Tennessee.  Salvation Army and Red Cross volunteers have been out in force offering aid.  Church groups are collecting supplies and driving to Alabama to help.  It inspires me and reminds me why I love working in the world of nonprofit – there’s such a spirit of generosity in times of need.

A friend shared this very powerful video with me and I wanted to share it with you. 
It’s a great example of the power of words.

“Vision Is Seeing the Invisible.” — Jonathan Swift

Thanks!

Sandy

I was listening to a speaker on Saturday talk about the difference a few minutes makes.  He had met some people who were there the day the Federal building in Oklahoma was destroyed by a bomb many years ago.

He said he heard stories about how people risked their lives going into a burning, crumbling building looking for survivors.  Isn’t it amazing how brave some folks become in the face of disaster?

And yet, a few minutes earlier, these same people wouldn’t give others a second glance.  Or the time of day.

Interesting, huh?

I heard the same comparison about the disaster in Japan.  Not that many years ago, Americans and Japanese were at war and trying to kill each other.  Some of those same Americans are still alive today and making donations to help the Japanese people in this terrible disaster they are experiencing.

It’s emotional fruitbasket turnover.

What would it be like if we could find a more happy medium to live in all the time?  Then instead of either totally ignoring people or risking our own lives to save them, we could live every day in a state of love for our fellow man.  How would that change things?  Would we stop complaining about the guy who cut us off in traffic this morning?  Would we stop griping about our co-worker and their annoying habits?  Would we find a totally different space to be in with our teenager whose room is a train wreck?

What do you think?  Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Thanks to my sweet friend Hugh for sharing this.

A young lady confidently walked around the room while leading and explaining stress management to an audience; with a raised glass of water, and everyone knew she was going to ask the ultimate question, ‘half empty or half full?’….. she fooled them all… “How heavy is this glass of water?”, she inquired with a smile.

Answers called out ranged from 8 oz. to 20 oz.

She replied, “The absolute weight doesn’t matter. It depends on how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute, that’s not a problem.  If I hold it for an hour, I’ll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you’ll have to call an ambulance.In each case it’s the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.” She continued, “and that’s the way it is with stress. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won’t be able to carry on.”

“As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again.  When we’re refreshed, we can carry on with the burden – holding stress longer and better each time practiced. So, as early in the evening as you can, put all your burdens down. Don’t carry them through the evening and into the night… pick them up tomorrow.Whatever burdens you’re carrying now, let them down for a moment. Relax, pick them up later after you’ve rested. Life is short. Enjoy it and the now ‘supposed’ stress that you’ve conquered!”

I was at a fundraising committee meeting recently and we were talking about growing the organization’s donor base. This is a common goal for nonprofit organizations, right?  Well, I’m always delighted when folks who don’t have formal fundraising training get it, as happened that day.

As we were talking about strategies for growing the donor base, we talked about how minimizing the loss of donors would help increase our overall number of active donors.  That’s when one sweet man said “we need to put our picture on their piano.”  We giggled immediately knowing what he meant.

I remember when I was little, my Grandma had lots of photos of family and friends on her beautiful upright piano.  That was her way of keeping them close and remembering them often.  The suggestion of putting our picture on the donor’s piano was a perfect way to describe the importance we need to put on relationships with our donors.  Our donors are so much more to us than just the check they write.  Their gift is a vote of confidence in the work our organization is doing.  It’s their way of saying they support what we’re doing and they want to see us succeed.  They, too, want to see the change we’re after in the world.

And that kind of support deserves our attention and respect.  Maybe we should put their picture on our piano, too.

Missy is one of four cats that live here with us. We adopted her from a local shelter about 10 years ago and she’s a sweetie. She’s the oldest and the smallest of the pack and to help her keep weight on, we feed her canned cat food every afternoon about 4 pm.  She LOVES her “tuna” as we call it and eats every last bite.

Lately, I’ve been watching her and thinking that Missy might have something to teach us about fundraising.

She knows what her goal is. Missy knows what she wants and every afternoon, she waits in her usual spot for her dinner.

She’s hopeful. When anyone walks to the kitchen at any time in the afternoon, Missy goes too, just to see if she might get fed early.

She builds relationship. She gives out lots of love during the day to those who feed her.

She expresses appreciation. She purrs and gives out love to those who help her reach her goal.

This is all good, but sometimes she’s a pest.  In fact, we’ve started calling her “Pesty Cat” because she ALWAYS wants to be fed.  This is a danger for many nonprofit fundraising folks – always showing up with their hand out for money.

If that’s how you approach fundraising, your donors will likely get tired of it.  Make sure that you ask often enough for a gift, but not too often.  It’s a fine line to walk, but one your donors will appreciate if you can get it right. If you want to take it a step further, ask your donors how often and when they’d like to be asked for a gift.  It puts your donor in charge of the relationship and they’ll be much happier.  You’ll likely see your results go up and your expenses go down.  Wondering how to do that?  Survey your donors and simply ask them what they want.

Gotta go – Missy is ready for her dinner!