A first blog posting after a long absence is always difficult; so many things to talk about, it's hard to decide what the most relevant topic would be. First, let me remind you where I've been...
After about seven years as an independent consultant, in January I began a regular, full-time executive director position with a local nonprofit organization, and spent the month fully immersed in learning the programs, the culture, and the needs. I've been working long days (and nights) and coming home exhausted but happy. My orientation and training will continue for another couple of months at least, but I feel I can come up for air long enough for a blog post or two.
Which brings us to the topic of this post, how did this career of mine start? The truth is, at the time of my first nonprofit job, I had no idea that it would be my career. At the time, I was still planning a life in film production. I had not yet returned to school to get degrees in politics (BA) and public policy (MPPA), and was just looking for an interesting and meaningful way to earn some money to pay for my creative projects and take a few cinema classes here and there.
I don't even recall the exact year, but it must have been in the early or mid 1980s, when I accepted a job as a canvasser for the Campaign for Economic Democracy (aka Campaign California) in Santa Monica; an organization started by Tom Hayden and his (then) wife, Jane Fonda. At the time, Hayden had recently been elected to the state Assembly, but he did speak with us occasionally. I don't recall ever seeing Ms. Fonda, but rumor was that her exercise videos were our number one funding source.
Each afternoon we'd gather in our 3rd Street office for some motivational presentation before hitting the residential streets of Los Angeles County to knock on doors and ask for signatures on petitions (mostly promoting solar energy and environmental protection) as well as collect donations to support our work.
Asking for those $10 and $25 checks was the hardest thing I'd ever done. Nobody could have ever guessed at that time that fundraising would become a large part of my professional career. Confession: I was not the best at getting those checks, although I did get many signatures.
There was, of course, a downside to working for a figure such as Tom Hayden. As much as he may have been lionized in certain west-side, ultra-liberal enclaves, he was quite reviled and hated elsewhere, especially in areas where there were many veterans of the Vietnam war. I was physically threatened on several occasions, including once by gentleman who kept a saw by his front door and chased me off his property waving the saw violently after me.
But there were many wonderful people too, who would invite you in for a glass of lemonade on a hot LA evening. We'd make note of these "safe houses" to know where to run when the guys with weapons got out of control. I didn't last long as a canvasser, but I did eventually get better at asking for money...
How about you? What was your first experience raising money for a cause or working for a nonprofit?
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Growing up in Iowa in the middle of the last century, I learned at an early age that privacy was important and no one ever—ever! talked about money. Thrift and charity were instilled into me via grandmothers, both of whom were widowed at a young age with young children to raise. One kept a boarding house while working as a clerk in an abstract office. The other was a school teacher who, with my young father, boarded with families in the small towns where she taught in one-room schools. Both tithed. With the pittance they earned, as soon as they were paid each set aside ten percent in cash in an envelope for others less fortunate than they were. I lived in a house with both of them during my early WWII years.
ReplyDeleteThis was in a pre-nonprofit era so one donated to a church and the other to missions which provided for the poor. Once, when I was very young, my parents felt that one of them needed a new hat. They gave her money for one. She went to a mission service in a part of town that served the poor black community, where she gave this money to those she felt were less fortunate. I went with her to a part of town that most people never saw—I was about 5 years old
Fast forward to 1990. When I started working for a nonprofit, I did not know I would need to raise money. I had never really thought about it. I had sporadically made donations but had never really considered how crucial these contributions were to making good things happen. I had never, never asked anyone for money (or for much of anything else). But I did know I felt good when I helped others.
The next decade transformed me. I cannot think of any particular defining event, but I actively sought advice and guidance in how to get over my fear of asking for money to sustain an organization that I passionately believed in. Perhaps the most powerful moment came when a particularly supportive and generous board member, who had been raised in the same mold I had, got over her fear of asking others for help. Her husband, a successful business man, was a major fund raiser for a local university. She had taught elementary school for decades and had never asked any one for money. She talked to her husband about this. He asked, “Do you believe in this organization? Do you feel good when you support it?" He then said, "You are not asking for money for yourself; you are asking someone if they can help continue the work.” It was a revelation to her. She became a major fund raiser presenting to others the work we were doing and the reasons for supporting it. It was a revelation to her. She became a major fund raiser presenting to others the work we were doing and the reasons for supporting it.
The values I learned in Iowa remain. But for both better and worse, I don't think I am in Iowa anymore.
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