When I first moved to LA back in 1972, I loved that it was clean, uncluttered, safe.  New York City, in those days-where I had lived-was non-of-the-above, and Brooklyn-where I had been born and grew up-was a place where if you said you lived there, people felt sorry for you.  What I hated was that we didn't have weather, really.  Though the month of January, that year, it rained almost every day.  Rain, however, didn't count too much as weather, especially if it was warm enough to go outside without a coat.

    This year, it's our lack of weather that I am loving.  My daughter, who lives (inexplicably but apparently happily) in Wisconsin tells me to get a life when I complain that it was cold at 60 degrees.  My sister in New York, usually feeling much smarter for staying on the east coast, has admitted that winter is truly getting her down.

     But winter will end; our traffic will not.  So 40-some odd years later, I question my moving west. 

     I bring all this up because it reminds me of the for-profit/not-for-profit divide.  In the 1980's, I moved from the for profit into the not-for-profit sector, but I moved into higher education.  Its own world.  In 2007, I moved again and started my consulting company, working with nonprofits mostly not in higher education but, rather, in social services, youth services, health, environment, and education (but mostly "lower" education as in k-12 or auxiliary services) and a lot of organizations I find hard to categorize.

      For me, it was coming into the sunshine from the snow.  Yes, there was/there is dysfunction.  Where isn't there?  And yes, I get frustrated because, always trying to do more with less too many of the organizations with whom I work seem to miss the importance of getting things done. 

     Getting things is what we do somehow, inexplicably, and with amazing results.  How could you not love working where miracles really do happen daily and where what you do matters, really matters?

     So I'm tired of being told that the not for profit sector needs to shape up; to act more like business; to be more bottom-line focused.  What bottom line is that?  The one that makes obscene profits for the few while the rest of us look on in fascination, anger, envy, or worse? 

     I'll take our bottom line any day:  Kids getting educated, people being fed and housed, diseases being managed, animals being taken care of, the arts being nurtured, the environment being if not exactly being saved at least less brutalized, and all of our lives being made that much richer.  The important kind of richer.

 Take a moment, right now, and give yourselves a pat on the back.  You do amazing work-whether you are staff, board, donor, volunteer, or some combination of all the above.  And I, for one, am proud to be a part of you.

This month there is a lot going on:  finding out what funders are looking for today, and a reminder that good things take time and patience-and why the wait is worth it.

Along with all that, for the busy among us, Bo scoured the Twitter-world (a place I confess I avoid) and chose the best of the month's reading.

    **************  

 Need help in increasing your fundraising capacity or getting your Board to participate?  

Help is here.  Email me or call 310-990-9151.

• Are your fundraising results down?
•  Board members bored?  
• Are you thinking about a campaign? 
• Or perhaps you need individual fundraising coaching!

Whatever your capacity building needs, Janet Levine Consulting can help.

  

 Send me an email or give me a call at 310-990-9151 to schedule a free 30-minute consultation. 

I look forward to meeting with you.

Sincerely,

 Janet