Do We Need Some of Our Own Medicine?
Disclaimer for what it's worth...I'm processing this idea as I write it and share it. I hope it might create a conversation around creating healthy, equitable relationships/partnerships between the non-profit and for-profit worlds.
Books like "When Helping Hurts" and "Toxic Charity" as well as organizations like CCDA or Jobs For Life have challenged my thinking in the last couple of years about the differences between charitable models and development models. There are more and more conversations about the lack of resources, the need to stop people from taking advantage of the "system," and the need to professionalize our organizations in order to compete and be more transparent. I'm all for this. This is healthy pressure on the non-profit world that pushes our organizations to be better organizations.
My work at an advertising agency before I began at NeighborLink made me aware of a tension that every business feels between a for-profit service driven company and a non-profit that needs that service. The non-profit usually wants the work for free or as close to free as possible. This is driven by budgets that have to pinch every penny possible and the reality that businesses do want to be generous and support charitable organizations they believe are worthy. However, I'm learning this is just as unhealthy of a relationship as the relationships some of organizations have with the clients we serve who struggle to meet the expectations we set on them.
It causes me to think that we as nonprofit organizations are in need of development just as those we serve. Why do we get upset when one of our clients wants whatever we have to give for free with the least amount of work necessary when we do that to the service providers we approach? What's the difference? We get defensive and our default posture is to protect our assets, not find ways to share those assets. I imagine those external partners we seek to help us with things feel the same way when we approach them with our needs.
As an executive director that has approached my fair share of businesses for partnership, I've noticed that I'm often seen as just another organization asking for something for free. Even when I have resources to pay for their services or am seeking something beyond just their products or services like their wisdom, I get this sentiment because of the endless requests for free work.
Two things usually happen to business owners. One, they try to say yes to everything and are usually overwhelmed by the amount of requests they take on and usually struggle to provide the level of service that they'd like to. Two, they get burned by an organization or burned out, and say no to everything. Both situations are unsustainable and unhealthy.
It needs to be said that not every situation fits this assessment and I'm making a generalization. I'm all for business owners and leaders giving everything away for free that they want to give. We NEED this as organizations. We NEED engaged people to serve in our organizations in these capacities.
However, it's time for our organizations to stop asking for everything for free. It's not equitable and it doesn't value the organization as a partner. It keep our relationship in a transactional position, not a relational one. We need to fundraise differently, advocate with our funding sources for a change in how we can use their funds, create social ventures to fund our needs, or learn how to offer what we have as a trade as alternatives solutions. We have value to offer for-profit partners and we should offer our best in exchange. We have so much more to gain in an equitable relationship with these businesses in the long-term over the short-term gain we ask for up front.
At NeighborLink, we're working on a video production company as a social venture. We need to tell our stories, video is expensive, we have a videographer that wants to work for us and is really good, and we do pretty good work. We now don't need to approach those video production companies to give us free videos, we need their partnership and commitment to send us referrals when potential clients don't meet their business model. Don't give us free video work, give us business! We'll tell our own stories with the excess in profit we'll make on selling our own video production work. This feels like a more equitable relationship to us.
It's all a learning process, but I'd like to see us move in this direction. Let's get creative and form meaningful partnerships with our donors. It's going to take more work, but work that will be worth it in the end.
