Pass the Sugar: Lessons in Nonprofit Abundance

My grandma was a thief!

Every time we would go out to eat, I would watch her slyly sneak a few sugar packets into her handbag. We pretended not to notice. I don’t think she really considered it stealing. She was just saving her sugar for later. My grandma's childhood was hard. I never knew her full story, but I know she was separated from her parents. From the little she shared; her early years were filled with hardships most of us would never know. By the time she had grandkids, she and my grandfather were doing well as owners of a successful printing business. She could easily afford all the sugar she wanted. But taking the packets was never about needing sugar. It was about soothing a deep-rooted fear of going without.?

Working in the nonprofit sector, I am no stranger to the impacts of living within a scarcity mindset. We do it every day. We have been conditioned to be scrappy. We are masters at doing more with less. Resources that are considered a necessity for most for-profit business are viewed as a luxury in a non-profit, with many of us relying on volunteers to support essential business functions. Essentially, we’ve been engrained to stash our sugar packets because we never know if there will be enough, and often, there isn't. This has a significant impact on our ability to innovate and think strategically.

But what would happen if we could change our mindset? What if we didn’t have to worry about the funding? What if we were confident that we would have all the sugar we needed to get the job done? How would that change our ability to meet the needs of our communities and tackle some of the toughest challenges? The last couple of years were essentially a case study in this very idea. While the pandemic caused a host of new hardships for our communities and organizations, there was also an underlying shift that none of us could have predicted. There was a level of respect and trust for nonprofits that we have not seen before in the sector. We became relevant to our communities in new ways. Nonprofits have always been vital, but there was a deeper appreciation for the work we do. It was honestly overwhelming. People were compelled to donate and help in any way possible. Grant requests were streamlined, and funding was distributed rapidly. For the first time, many of us in the sector were not preoccupied by finding new ways to be scrappy. We felt confident that we could find the ways and means to do whatever our communities needed to make it through. And we did just that!

It the midst of some of the most stressful and challenging days, nonprofits shifted entire models (practically overnight) to be there for those that needed us most. We innovated. We collaborated. We did exactly what funders have been asking us to do for years. Why? Because we could!

Scarcity begets scarcity. Abundance begets abundance. When you are not worried about your own sugar packets, you start to view others as collaborators, not competitors. You can focus your time and energy on solving problems. You try new ideas and aren’t afraid to fail. You work smarter, not harder.

But let’s be honest, when funding isn’t as readily available, this becomes significantly harder to do. Instead of having time to innovate and collaborate, we spend our energy trying to figure out where our funding will come from, and often feel as if we must compete with other nonprofits for the same dollars. Essentially, we hoard our sugar. We are constantly worried about sustainability and chase dollars for programs, even when they aren’t the best fit for our organization. Our choices often come down to raising more money or scaling back expenses, which in turns means cutting back on services. It can feel like a constant treadmill. It’s no wonder the burnout rate in the nonprofit sector is so high. What I am talking about isn’t new. It is a trap many nonprofits have been in for years. And while there aren’t any quick solutions to these problems, there are a few things we can do to keep the momentum going from the last two years.

Go Deep

First, we must realize that more is not always best, sometimes it’s just more. That desire for more can often result in mission creep (and nobody wants to be a creep). It’s easy to get distracted by new funding opportunities that take you away from your core mission and strengths. We see much needed dollars and stop asking ourselves if this is our work to do. Doing more isn’t bad. Doing more and not doing it well is. Or even worse, diverting funding away from others that can truly do the work better. By focusing on our strengths, we can think more strategically about the resources we have and how to leverage them for the greatest impact. Narrowing your focus helps you better articulate your story and attract donors that truly connect with your work. It also allows you to identify new opportunities to collaborate more effectively with others.

Focus on the Future

Live out your vision, not just your mission. Compared to the mission, I feel like the vision statement gets the short end of the stick. Your mission is your organization's purpose—it’s the core of your work. We talk about it all the time and it is almost always what we lead with. Our vision, however, is where we want to go. It’s our North Star. But it's rarely at center stage. It’s often viewed as aspirational, not attainable. Nice words on paper about a future ideal state, but not practical to talk about. But what if we gave our vision more attention? What if it became the driver of our discussions and the compass for our decisions? Of course, we still need to focus on the daily work in the here and now. But instead of just asking how something supports the mission, we should ask how it drives the vision forward to get us one step closer to where we ultimately want to go.

Know Your Value

Finally, believe in your value, as an organization and individuals. This is a real challenge in the nonprofit sector. We’re accustomed to not asking for what we need and can feel scrutinized for what we spend. And because of this, we often don't work smarter. I have seen many times where organizations step over a dollar to pick up a penny. We are always worried about having enough sugar. Let’s be honest, often the perceived value of our work in the nonprofit sector compared to other businesses is not weighted equally. We hear it all the time in comments from others. One of my least favorite platitudes about the sector is when someone says “they don’t do it for the money.” Yes, we do. And there is nothing wrong with that. Our employees are the same as those in the for-profit sector. They are smart, hard-working, dedicated, and talented. And they also have families with the same hopes, dreams, and goals as every other employee. While people that work in nonprofits have a strong desire to give back in meaningful ways, it shouldn’t mean that they have to sacrifice personally to do it. This mentality chips away at our sense of self-worth. It creates high turnover, and honestly, makes us less efficient and effective. We need to shift the perspective on how nonprofits are viewed compared to other businesses. We need to understand that it’s hard work. It’s vital work. It’s just not profitable work.

I know I'm not saying anything that many others have not shared before. These are deep-seated, ongoing challenges for the sector. But I just don’t want to lose sight of the opportunity to learn from what many of us experienced during these last couple of years. It was a significant shift that could easily serve as a case study in the power of shifting organizations from scarcity to abundance. It could serve as an impetus for meaningful conversations about the attitudes, structures, and systems that hold us back. And it could be a guide for how we move forward, together.

Now, if you don’t mind, please pass the sugar.