Airport.  Again.  Heading home with mixed feelings.  It is hard to leave my daughter and grandchildren.  Those ties pull strongly.  My daughter and I talk about her 3 kids, our dreams and aspirations for them; we hope they grow up into a world worth inheriting.  I think about the political picture and get depressed.  And then I think of the work I am lucky enough to be involved with, and feel a surge of hope.

   My business takes me into many organizations in pretty much all of the nonprofit sectors.  I get the see the amazing things that occur.  And I get to see how much more could be accomplished with a little planning, a bit of forethought, more emphasis on what is needed to do the work well, less willingness to accept a culture of poverty and more emphasis on one of philanthropy.

   I didn't realize as a kid that I was philanthropic.  I was just trick or treating for UNICEF, saving half my allowance so annually I could make a pledge during Jerry Lewis's telethon, and send a few dollars to other causes or issues that mattered to me.  I didn't know there was a field called "development" or a job where you actually got help people (and organizations) make a difference.  When I fell into it, I thought I had grabbed that gold ring,

   But thirty years on, I'm not as sure as I once was. I still feel passionate about the nonprofit sector-about the work we do, and I think we could be so much more impactful.   I see too many organizations that were started just because someone had a passion-and an ego that would not allow him or her to see if there were already other organizations close by doing the similar things.  Instead of starting up yet another too small nonprofit, perhaps there would be a way to partner and really make a difference.

    While I mostly see fantastic and committed board members, I also see too many who don't understand-or don't want to understand-their jobs.  Rather than provide direction, support, vision, they want to nitpick, take time, and demand action without thinking through the consequences. 

Too often, I see donors and board members who wouldn't do their jobs for the salaries they think are just fine for those running the nonprofits insist on cuts because funding is down, instead of considering how to make those nonprofits more sustainable and financially viable.

   For every down day, though, I have three up ones.  I know the commitment that is made-and the difference that is the result.  And as I think of my grandchildren, I feel grateful that I live in a world where philanthropy matters, and where so many of you are doing the work you do.