Anxiety Has Us Spinning

My email inbox regularly screams with the anxiety often inherent in the work of raising funding to make nonprofit work possible.

• URGENT: Last Chance to Sign Up for this FREE Webinar!
• Tips and Tricks to Make Donors Love You
• Tips and Tricks to Get Donors’ Attention
• Tips and Tricks to Manage Your Bananas Workload So You Don’t Lose Your Mind
• Pay Attention to THIS to Have a Successful Year-End Fundraising Campaign
• Here’s How You Get More Major Donors
• Here’s How You Get More Grants
• Here’s How You Get More Money

I jest.

Somewhat.

Those examples are just a sense of the types of messages that regularly grace my inbox. And those messages are of the microcosmic variety. They are the ones aimed at individual organizations and their fundraisers.

Then, there are the macrocosmic ones.

• Donors Have Lost Their Trust in Nonprofits
• Giving Fell Again Last Year
• The Economy… or The Election… or [Fill In The Blank] Threatens Giving This Year

These are just representative ideas, but you know the vibe. You can just feel it in the words I’m sharing, even if those aren’t the exact ones you’ve seen. You recognize it. I’m sure your inbox looks fairly similar?

An actual one I got yesterday made me shake my head yet again. And this is one that looks fairly benign on its surface:

[Free Template] Golf Tournament Promotion Plan

So.

What's the problem?

The problem is that so much of what passes as “philanthropy” today is completely derivative. In fact, these things are SO derivative that you can barely see the shadows of “a love of humanity” within them anymore.

Think about how much time… and effort… and money… goes into promotion of a golf tournament. Meetings. Strategizing. Phone calls. Emails. And more. ALL to get a bunch of people gathered… to play golf. And probably talk about everything BUT the mission of the org they’re supporting while they’re doing it.

A golf tournament for the purpose of raising funds to support a nonprofit’s work to help the community is basically an adaptation of an adaption of an adaption… of an adaption. Running around in circles to avoid simply walking a path forward.

Let’s get back to the source.

This whole thing is fairly basic. Some of our fellow humans have needs. Others of our fellow humans might be able to help them. Let’s find the simplest, shortest path to help the latter help the former.

We let anxiety get the best of us.

Like the energy of anxiety almost always flows, we spin and spin and spin… and SO much energy gets scattered and wasted.

What happens if we, instead, consciously choose to ground ourselves? To take a deep breath, close our eyes, and sink our roots deeply into the whole reason we are raising/moving funds in the first place? To open our hearts to the love and care we have for our community… and our fellow humans?

And to see our purpose as cultivating and growing that love and care among our fellow humans?

I don’t think we’d be worrying about promoting a golf tournament, in that case.

I think we’d be reaching out to people, to connect with them directly, to talk about what matters most. I think we’d be having meaningful conversations with them about the work we’re doing to bring more health, wellness, love, and care into our shared community life. I think we’d be inviting them to join us.

Because what better offer could we possibly make to them than entering into the joy of community?

This work we’re doing is soul work.

Deep work.

Can we stop pretending it’s not?

Can we stop getting distracted?

Can we turn away from the persistent anxiety?

I think we can… and should.

How do we do that?

We root into love.

For ourselves.

For others.

For our community.

That’s what we’re doing here.

In the weeks/months to come, we will be focusing here on how we can all start to do that more. We will be practicing it together.

Are you in?

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