There are days when I think the message is obvious and everybody understands it. But then you realize that is not true.
Fundraisers will tell you that you are not raising money for your organization. You are raising money for your cause. I thought everybody knew that.
But actions speak louder than words. And in this case, actions speak volumes.
Tom Suddes of For Impact, showed this chart from the Chronicle of Philanthropy. 
It indicates that all nonprofit organizations have done in response to the downturn in the economy is reduce, shrink, downsize, eliminate, consolidate…
They have not increased their sales force, their fundraising staff. They have not become more aggressive about raising money.
This can only be a result of small organizational thinking. Money is decreasing and the question immediately is: What do we do?
Who is we?
It turns out that the we in this question refers to the organization.
This we does not refer to the movement that is advancing the cause.
“We can no longer… and therefore we have to reduce …”
The we stands for the organization.
“We are continue to change… and therefore we have to think about other assets we might develop.”
Then we stands for the movement.
Do you see the difference? Do you see how important that difference is?
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