Gift Hub

Human Truth Eyes Shut Ears Stopped

The guttural voice of the group id. Yik Yak, the anonymous gossip app. Masquerade. Life as a cabaret vs. the world of polite power, played with pious faces. The "carnivalesque." The Lord of Misrule. Channeling violence and obscenity, at times for a higher purpose, anonymous for good reason, and sometimes just harassment or mob rule, like a lynching. On our best behavior not much can be said to overturn stifling decorum, which itself blocks self knowledge, and social change. Oscar Wilde said, "Man is least himself when he speaks in his own person. Give a man a mask, and he will tell you the truth." The otherwise untold truth, certainly, and much else too that is best, like human nature, hidden beneath skirts, britches, and ecclesiastical robes. "None does offend, none," cries Lear mad, stripping himself in the cold rain. Yet what could be more offensive on the public stage than the king's shriveled genitals? In the presence of human truth, we avert our eyes out of respect for humanity. Laughter comes closer, the split second recognition, before we say, "Excuse me," as I often do, to no avail. For satire there is simply no excuse, not even the classics. "The truth will set you free, but not before its finished with you," wrote David Foster Wallace, author of Infinite Jest, before his untimely death by hanging, self-inflicted.

Mnemosyne's Journey

"The paths of glory lead but to the grave," the poet writes.

Lost myself, on the Journey from Success to Significance, having found neither, I crossed paths with Mnemosyne. In her dotage she had lost her memory and her mind. I asked her name, next of kin, her home address, and all she could mutter were a few clichés.  Sic transit Gloria. God help us all. She died intestate. Her intellectual property was distributed to Marketing, Avarice, Mendacity, Cunning, and Folly. Their mentor, Wisdom, turned Slattern, draws her fees from corpus. The assets dwindle, but the heirs thrive.

Shark Tank Philanthropy in Wealth Bondage

After thankless decades toiling in Wealth Bondage, for slave wages under the heel of my immediate superior, and generous patron, the Goddess of the Free Market, she who rules us all, Mistress Candidia, the self-made billionaire, with, as she says, "a fucking Harvard, MBA," I was delighted to see others being thrown to the sharks for once. If we losers cannot make the case for our own survival, we deserve to perish. Nature and Markets are cruel. Philanthropy is love, but love of a certain sort - many kneel, one gloats. If you feel there is no Market for that, you are really out of touch. Whether you glory in your power, or tremble in your submission - honestly, don't you enjoy it, and aren't you glad to have a big audience? Some may call this exhibition, this theater of cruelty, coarse, debased, crass, crude - but it sells and what sells is good. What other standard would you apply?

Making 'Wealth Disparity' personal - and profitable

"Is it safe to go shopping?" asks a women in a new Porsche, as the hedge fund protesters move through Greenwich, CT. Increasingly, I believe, wealth disparity will be assigned a human face - with protests not in public parks, as with Occupy, but on the doorstep of high profile "job creators" whose job creation has fallen short. As here, too, when 26 were arrested outside Alice Walton's NYC apartment. The photo of a bin chained to her awning pole here, went viral on Twitter, to the delight of labor organizers who consider it a case study in how to get social media buzz.

If one family is worth as much as 1 million low income families how may of that million could show up to pay a personal visit? If even 50 show up, it could be a party, if cake were served. In fact, what a great idea for my Social Enterprise. "WB Caterers: Let them eat cake."  What makes it a social venture for the good of humankind is that we will employ the indigent to bake, deliver, and serve the cake at these lawn parties. Maybe a hedge fund manager in Greenwich can put up the start up money. For every trend there is a profitable niche.  This, at last, could be mine.

Nonprofit Death Spiral - Boards Must Smarten Up

Questions for Boards

• As you have become a higher performing organization, following Mario Marino’s excellent game plan, has your cash flow improved?
• Is your fundraising optimized for raising funds from high capacity people like you (Board members)?
• Can you recommend to your peers the fundraising interviews that your front line people deliver?
• Will you make the fundraising calls yourself – and if not, what has to change to make this a pleasure?

 Observations

•  Boards expect payback for new fundraising initiatives of one-two years. (Via Penelope Burk)
• Improving fund development, for highest capacity donors, requires a multi-year investment in staff, education, and infrastructure
• Fundraisers are increasingly drafted into hardball solicitations because the orgs are starving for funds
• Long term pipelines of highest capacity donors are being neglected even though 81% of the funds come from 1% of the donors over their giving lifetimes. (Via Cooldata)
• Savvy, relationship-based, fundraisers cite lack of understanding of fundraising by Boards, and ED, as the main reason fundraisers leave. (Via Penelope Burk)
• 3.5 years  is the median fundraiser tenure, making relationship-based fundraising difficult (Via Penelope Burk)
• Boards, per BoardSource, score themselves as “flunking” fundraising
• Yet Board are intrinsically involved in it.

 Funding Facts

•  50% of nonprofit revenue across the sector comes from goods and services sold to individuals
• 24% is from goods and services sold to government
• 8% is from grants by government
• 13% is from fundraising (via Urban Institute)
• Donor attrition from year 1-2 is 65%
• Donor attrition over ten years is 90% (via Penelope Burke)

Competitive Death Spiral

• Yes, there are 1 million US public charities, but the competition is from social enterprises too
• Social enterprises compete with nonprofits toe to toe for earned revenue (which is 74% of the funding 'pie')
• Social enterprises are beating out nonprofits in many areas (health care, home health care, daycare) in part because they have better access to capital markets (Via Lester Salamon)
• The trend towards impact investing in social enterprises is accelerating exponentially
• Capgemini 2014 says that the ultra-wealthy rate impact investing as the #1 way to do good –ahead of annual giving, major gifts, planned gifts, or volunteering
• The only competitive advantages vs. social enterprises that nonprofits have are “mission” (ethos), loyal constituents, and fundraising for tax deductible dollars
• Desperate, hardball, short term fundraising alienates the best donors, undermines the brand, causes fundraiser turnover, and can lead to a nonprofit death spiral

The Upward Spiral

• Becoming a higher performing organization (in delivering services) is a necessary but not a sufficient condition of success
• To achieve success (or even long term solvency) brand "ethos" (living the ideals of the organization), and donor-focused fund development, as well as earned revenue, must be optimized

Board Responsibilities

• Boards oversee the above, and are ultimately responsible.

Personal Note

The data points above are not my strength, but pattern recognition is. The data points are clear enough to compel action. Unless Boards do step up their understanding of fundraising, and invest in it, I am afraid the future for the nonprofits we love, lead and support, will be increasingly bleak.